Page 114 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

Persuasion in the Political Context 107

a message presented in negative framing is modified through the arousal of
anxiety as long as the values presented in the message match the voters’
value systems and voters are able to interpret these values as representative
of the particular political option (Barker, 2005). A message that is tangen-
tial to voters’ axiology is doomed to be ineffective, irrespective of how
much anxiety it evokes, unless it concerns some primary public value that
is not dependent on any party ideology, such as saving lives (Arceneaux,
2012).
It has been shown here that the magnitude of framing effects depends
on the characteristics of the recipients of the frame, which relates to the
classic segmentation of the electoral market. Below, we present an example
of the impact of positive and negative framing used in presenting a given
stance on a political issue in the context of voter beliefs of varying inten-
sity. Multiple research results have shown that the voters most susceptible
to the influence of political messages are undecided voters, who find them-
selves in the midst of two extreme political options. Falkowski and Cwalina
(1999) and Cwalina, Falkowski, and Newman (2011) specified detailed
methodological procedures to empirically justify the claim made by
Blumler and McQuail (1968) that so-called deep-seated attitudes are im-
pervious and cannot be changed by persuasive information. The image of
a particular aspect of reality can be shaped in voters who are undecided on
an issue, who fail to adopt any clear stance on it, or who claim to be neu-
tral. Therefore, the problem of the persuasiveness of political messages
shaped by framing can be considered in the context of an electoral market
that highlights undecided voters as a strategic segment (Cwalina et al.,
2011). The other segments gather decided voters, who express their deep
support for various political parties and who tend to resist any persuasive
political messages (Miller & Krosnick, 1996).

Positive and Negative Framing in Shaping the Behaviors of Undecided Voters

Cwalina, Falkowski, and Kaid (2000) and Cwalina, Falkowski, and
Newman (2011) presented a methodological analysis of how to identify the
segment of undecided voters on the basis of the political elections in Poland,
France, and Germany. Their research revealed that of all voters, undecided
voters are most susceptible to the persuasive appeal of political messages.
Research on electoral behavior has confirmed that the past few decades
have witnessed a growing number of voters who are politically undecided
and who are so-called floating voters—they make their voting decisions at
the last moment—rather than steadfast supporters of one political option
(Cwalina et al., 2008). This is exactly the segment of voters that has shown