Page 115 - The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

108 The Handbook of Persuasion and Social Marketing

the greatest susceptibility to framing in argumentation, and they should be
the primary addressees of persuasive communication. In contrast, decided
voters are impervious to this type of message. They opt for the candidate
who offers a methodology of solving social and economic problems (such
as increasing financial aid for education, reducing the crime rate, or de-
creasing unemployment) that is in harmony with their views.
Therefore, in the process of persuasion, we deal with the shaping of
evaluations and preferences concerning a particular candidate, which is a
function of the partial evaluations of the solutions proposed by the candi-
date. However, a given issue can also produce a division among voters,
depending on the preferred solutions. In the majority of cases, three seg-
ments can be identified in the electoral market. The first segment gathers
supporters of the given politician’s stance (e.g., introducing a guaranteed
quota of parliamentary seats for women). Voters in the second segment
oppose the solution, while those in the third segment take a neutral posi-
tion. The neutral segment is the undecided one; in principle, a well-de-
signed persuasive message should be sent to the people in this segment.
All in all, the persuasive appeal of a given message results from the opera-
tion of two factors: (1) the mode of its presentation, and (2) the attitude of
the voter toward the problem—for, against, or neutral.
These two factors influencing electoral behavior were taken into ac-
count by Cwalina and Falkowski (2012) in their research concerning am-
biguity in the presentation of election-related issues by candidates. The
researchers studied the persuasive appeal of the following question: Should
Poland adopt the common currency (euro)? The problem of adoption of
the euro by European Union (E.U.) member states is topical, and it has
been highlighted even more by the current economic crisis, which has led
to a heated debate in various E.U. states concerning the justification for
adopting the common currency by the states that are still outside the mon-
etary union (such as Poland and the United Kingdom), as well as the po-
tential withdrawal of states that fail to cope with the crisis (e.g., Greece).
In view of these facts, the issue of whether member states should adopt the
common currency can be a valuable asset in the hands of politicians who
want to increase their support level among voters.
The image of how economic reality is influenced by the common cur-
rency can be shaped in voters’ minds with the use of various types of
frames. De Vreese (2005) analyzed the conflict and the economic conse-
quences frames in an examination of the attitudes displayed to this prob-
lem by Danish, Dutch, and British voters. Voter perception of this issue
depends on how the media portray information about the potential conse-
quences of the adoption of the common currency. A detailed analysis of