Lecture #8 - Framing
Functions of language:
- Phatic function - establish connection
- Referential function - describe situation or object
- Conative function - conveying commands
- Emotive function - changes in the voice that add information about the speaker's internal
state
- Poetic function - repetition, alliteration …
- Metalinguistic function - reflections on how we use language
The seventh function of language? → Power to persuade, to have control over the listener
Weber 2010 “Authority of the personal gift of grace or charisma. “Charismatic rule” of
the kind practiced in the political sphere
Frames = carried in rhetorical devices including metaphors quotes, visual images…
• “A selection, organization, and emphasis of certain aspects of reality to the exclusion of others”
• “A central organizing idea or story line that shapes individual understanding and opinion
concerning an issue by stressing specific elements or features of the broader controversy in such
a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation,
and/or treatment recommendation”
Attitudes = sum of different consideration about a specific issue, weighted by the salience of
each consideration
→ Frames can make certain considerations available or increase the weight of certain
→ Can make consideration more easily accessible by means of repetition or by the strength of
the frame
→ Frames also need to be applicable, and judged appropriate for the situation
1. Equivalence framing
• Eg. 90% employment vs 10% unemployment
• 97% fat free vs 3% fat
, 2. Emphasis framing
Qualitatively different considerations eg:
• Framing poverty as a social issue leads to more support for poverty programs than framing it as
caused by individual behaviour
• Framing KKK meetings as a free speech issue increases tolerance vs framing it as a disruption
to public order
• Emphasizing inequality increases support for unemployment benefits, and emphasizing budget
deficit increases support for cuts in unemployment benefits.
3. Frames in communication vs frames in thought
4. Implicit vs explicit frames in communication
Explicit framing - when the frame directly gives you the argument, problem definition…
Implicit framing - frame causes associations to be made with unnamed arguments…
5. Strength of frames in thought
How aware are we? Influence of biases, inequality aversion,
Modes of presentation - thematic vs episodic frames
Cheating detection, Petersen et al. 2012:
(example of held bias) 3 different treatments with different frames:
Attitudes towards the welfare state are driven by the will to catch people who cheat it.
Negativity bias, Tversky and Kahneman (1981)
DV - policy choices with risks vs policy choices w/ certainty
IV - a gains frame (save) vs a losses frame (die)
Main claim - in the losses frames people prefer to take risks in the gains frame people prefer
certainty
Prospect theory
Theory of decision making, eg to understand elite decision making
Functions of language:
- Phatic function - establish connection
- Referential function - describe situation or object
- Conative function - conveying commands
- Emotive function - changes in the voice that add information about the speaker's internal
state
- Poetic function - repetition, alliteration …
- Metalinguistic function - reflections on how we use language
The seventh function of language? → Power to persuade, to have control over the listener
Weber 2010 “Authority of the personal gift of grace or charisma. “Charismatic rule” of
the kind practiced in the political sphere
Frames = carried in rhetorical devices including metaphors quotes, visual images…
• “A selection, organization, and emphasis of certain aspects of reality to the exclusion of others”
• “A central organizing idea or story line that shapes individual understanding and opinion
concerning an issue by stressing specific elements or features of the broader controversy in such
a way as to promote a particular problem definition, causal interpretation, moral evaluation,
and/or treatment recommendation”
Attitudes = sum of different consideration about a specific issue, weighted by the salience of
each consideration
→ Frames can make certain considerations available or increase the weight of certain
→ Can make consideration more easily accessible by means of repetition or by the strength of
the frame
→ Frames also need to be applicable, and judged appropriate for the situation
1. Equivalence framing
• Eg. 90% employment vs 10% unemployment
• 97% fat free vs 3% fat
, 2. Emphasis framing
Qualitatively different considerations eg:
• Framing poverty as a social issue leads to more support for poverty programs than framing it as
caused by individual behaviour
• Framing KKK meetings as a free speech issue increases tolerance vs framing it as a disruption
to public order
• Emphasizing inequality increases support for unemployment benefits, and emphasizing budget
deficit increases support for cuts in unemployment benefits.
3. Frames in communication vs frames in thought
4. Implicit vs explicit frames in communication
Explicit framing - when the frame directly gives you the argument, problem definition…
Implicit framing - frame causes associations to be made with unnamed arguments…
5. Strength of frames in thought
How aware are we? Influence of biases, inequality aversion,
Modes of presentation - thematic vs episodic frames
Cheating detection, Petersen et al. 2012:
(example of held bias) 3 different treatments with different frames:
Attitudes towards the welfare state are driven by the will to catch people who cheat it.
Negativity bias, Tversky and Kahneman (1981)
DV - policy choices with risks vs policy choices w/ certainty
IV - a gains frame (save) vs a losses frame (die)
Main claim - in the losses frames people prefer to take risks in the gains frame people prefer
certainty
Prospect theory
Theory of decision making, eg to understand elite decision making
