Ideological Framing: Key to Overcoming Motivated Reasoning on Climate Change

Abstract

Research has demonstrated that the presentation of scientific information about climate change strengthens Democrats’ belief in the scientific consensus on this issue and increases their support for mitigation policy solutions. By contrast, this same information fails to increase support from Republicans and, sometimes, results in a backfire effect, where Republicans reject the scientific consensus and disapprove of these mitigation policies to a greater extent than if not exposed to this information. I argue that Republicans are motivated to reject this scientific information about climate change because the policy solutions are typically communicated in a manner inconsistent with their ideological values. I theorize that framing policy solutions using arguments that invoke conservative values will result in policy support from Republicans. I test this hypothesis and related expectations using a survey experiment in which respondents are randomly assigned to one of three strategically crafted messages that do and do not invoke conservative economic values. In doing so, I directly assess the distinct effects of economic information and environmental protection information on support for climate mitigation policy. The importance of these findings for public opinion, political communication, and the adoption of climate change policy solutions is discussed.