Individual Predispositions as a Moderator of Framing Effects

In recent election campaigns politicians made use of framing strategies to influence voters’ decisions. Strategies of framing in this context are used to develop a conceptualization of an issue by promoting a particular interpretation of it. In consequence, the concern has been raised that framing could equal a manipulation of voters. However, several studies have shown that there are limits to framing effects: Individual predispositions such as values are perhaps the most obvious constraint on framing effects. To test this connection we investigate individual predispositions as a moderator that can be conceptualized and operationalized in different ways. We present findings from an online experiment conducted in the surroundings of the German Federal Election 2013: The liability to framing effects increases with the consistency of the frame and one owns predispositions. Less elaborated theoretical considerations concerning the mere strength of an individual’s predispositions however do not appear to moderate framing effects.