Affirmative Action and White Males: A Study of the Impacts of Framing

Presenter: Angela Stelson, Political Science

Ballot measure campaigns have served as a discursive battleground for various arguments (or “frames”) of affirmative action. Using this historical backdrop, this study tests three models designed to predict the success of frames using demographic attributes: liberal vs. conservative, group dominance, and parent morality. The study used a survey of 104 Caucasian males to analyze the relationship between demographic factors, political ideology and morality models for frames found in the campaigns for affirmative action ballot measures. The survey was based around a fictitious ballot measure which the respondent could vote on, and then change their vote based on exposure to frames. The findings ascertained that no one model could completely explain the effect of the frames. However, different model predictions correlated positively with different types of frames; the parent morality model best described frames which addressed the same socioeconomic group (“in-group”), and the liberal-conservative model best fit frames which were oriented toward other demographics (“out-group”). These results help to contribute to the body of framing knowledge by providing a comparative test of these models and indicating their flaws, while providing an alternative model which combines the strengths of each model.