Understanding Behavioral and Emotional Responses to Frames Used by Animal Rights Organizations in the United States and France

Student: Alysa Tarrant
Majors: French and Francophone Studies, Communication Studies
Advisors: Marion Duval, Yi Zhu
The purpose of this study was to examine how varying demographics among French and American populations responded to three types of frames used by animal rights organizations: ethical, environmental, and health related. A two by three experimental design in which participants saw two images corresponding to one of the three frames was distributed. The survey measured each respondent’s political opinions, emotional response, and behavioral response through self-designed scales. The study finds that culture and political ideologies play a significant role in influencing frame response, such that the French respondents were more emotionally and behaviorally influenced than Americans, and that liberals are more emotionally and behaviorally influenced than conservatives. More specifically, the research also finds that the environmental and ethical frames were significantly different in evoking emotional responses, while the health frame was not. Additionally, the frame effect was significant for emotional response but not for behavioral response.

Alysa will be online to field comments on May 8:
10am-noon EDT (Asia: late evening, PST 6am-8am, Africa/Europe: late afternoon)

Posted in I.S. Symposium, Independent Study on April 28, 2020.