麻豆淫院

Framing is a powerful tool in communications: It can help people grasp complex ideas, but it can also distort or mislead. A recent sociological study suggests that framing social issues as "civil rights" can sometimes have surprising and even negative consequences.

The study, "Frame Backfire: The Conundrum of Civil Rights Appeals in the Contemporary United States," is in the American Sociological Review by Fabiana Silva (University of Michigan), Irene Bloemraad (University of British Columbia), and Kim Voss (University of California-Berkeley). It explores how Americans today understand and respond to civil rights rhetoric, especially in discussions about social problems and government interventions. The authors investigate whether civil rights appeals can be effectively applied to a range of issues, including unequal treatment versus material needs, different beneficiary groups (e.g., African Americans, Latinos, whites, undocumented immigrants), and audiences with various political leanings.

Using two large-scale surveys with embedded experiments conducted in 2016 and 2019, the researchers found that while civil rights are viewed positively in the abstract鈥攂y people across political affiliations and generations鈥攅xplicitly invoking civil rights language in policy scenarios can actually reduce support for government intervention. This backfire effect holds true even in traditional civil rights contexts, such as policies to address racial discrimination against African Americans.

These findings challenge assumptions in both social movement scholarship and public opinion research. The study suggests that despite the enduring symbolic power of civil rights, its use as a rhetorical frame may be counterproductive in some contemporary contexts. Shifting public perceptions, potential message fatigue, and the complexities of collective memory may contribute to this surprising outcome. Notably, the use of survey experiments to causally test frame resonance remains rare in this field, making this work an important contribution.