IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/flgsxx/v50y2024i1p87-108.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The limits of framing effects: citizen perceptions of councilor compensation

Author

Listed:
  • Amanda Rutherford
  • Cullen C. Merritt

Abstract

Existing research provides evidence that the framing of information can substantively alter how citizens perceive institutions of government and a range of policy issues. While prior work acknowledges that there are limits to the effects of framing, less attention has been given to examining contexts in which framing fails to shape perceptions. Using an exploratory survey experiment, we compare the effects of political knowledge, perceived ideological distance, and more deliberative thinking to framing regarding councilor pay, an issue for which citizens consistently express negative sentiment. When provided real-world information showing local councilors are compensated less than their counterparts in comparable cities, citizens are somewhat more likely to rate their councilors as underpaid. However, framing effects are not observed when respondents use more deliberative thinking. Further, we find that explained variance in perceptions is more strongly associated with political knowledge, ideological distance, trust, and, in the case of deliberative thinking, gender.

Suggested Citation

  • Amanda Rutherford & Cullen C. Merritt, 2024. "The limits of framing effects: citizen perceptions of councilor compensation," Local Government Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 50(1), pages 87-108, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:taf:flgsxx:v:50:y:2024:i:1:p:87-108
    DOI: 10.1080/03003930.2023.2174979
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03003930.2023.2174979
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/03003930.2023.2174979?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:flgsxx:v:50:y:2024:i:1:p:87-108. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/flgs .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.