Framing the Basic Income: An Experimental Study of How Arguments and Metaphors Influence Individuals’ Opinion Formation

Legein Thomas (), Vandeleene Audrey, Randour François, Heyvaert Pauline, Perrez Julien and Reuchamps Min
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Legein Thomas: Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Vandeleene Audrey: Lunds Universitet, Lund, Sweden
Randour François: Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
Heyvaert Pauline: Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium
Perrez Julien: Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium
Reuchamps Min: Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Basic Income Studies, 2018, vol. 13, issue 2, 16

Abstract: Using an experimental design, this paper tackles the question of the framing impact of metaphors by focusing on the opportunity to implement a basic income (BI) system in a given polity. We take advantage of the preliminary stage of the BI debate in Belgium to study the influence of discursive strategies on the opinion formation process of individuals, since carefully choosing the arguments employed to address this question can help increase its psychological feasibility. Our experiment aims at determining to what extent the confrontation of individuals to metaphors illustrating the BI system impacts the way they apprehend its implementation. We show that very light variations in an informative text can induce major differences in the opinion formation process of the participants. BI proponents should thus pay attention to which metaphors are put forward in the public debate, as this could modify its outcome.

Keywords: basic income; experiment; framing; metaphors; political discourse (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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DOI: 10.1515/bis-2018-0010

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