Issue Frames and Group-Centrism in American Public Opinion

Public opinion on government policy is group-centric: that is, strongly influenced by the attitudes citizens possess toward the social groups perceived as the beneficiaries of the policy. Though common-place, this mode of political thinking is not inevitable. In four experiments, we show that group-centrism hinges in part on how issues are framed in public debate. When issues are framed in ways that draw attention to a policy's beneficiaries, group-centrism increases; when issues are framed in ways that deflect attention away from the beneficiaries, group-centrism declines. We conclude by drawing out the implications of these findings for the concept of frame, considered both as a rhetorical weapon in elites' hands and as a cognitive structure in citizens' minds.