Doctoral Dissertation Research: Moral foundation frame effectiveness in sustainable policy introductions

在美国大部分地区，公众并不认为水政策是一个有分歧的话题；然而，随着区域水资源的极限接近，必须优先考虑水的需求，水政策很有可能因自由派和保守派保持不同的立场而在政治上受到影响。水政策传播者减少两极分化的能力将影响利益相关者为解决水问题而共同努力的程度。研究表明，传播者可以通过有目的地将自然资源挑战与道德立场（如公平、忠诚和伤害）结合起来，从而减少两极分化，这些道德立场在不同的政治光谱中有不同的共鸣。然而，这些研究主要集中在气候变化等问题上，在这些问题上，党派观点已经占据了主导地位，而不是以防止党派形成为目标的研究。此外，很少有研究充分模拟了政策引入的竞争环境，即政府官员和外部利益集团竞相为公众确定问题，以及社会线索，如发言人的政治派别，表明党派同僚有望采取的立场。本项目解决了这些差距，对道德框架的使用进行了实验性评估，以防止竞争性水政策引入中的党派偏见。本研究将分为两部分进行。首先，Rasch模型将用于开发水知识评估。这项评估将与一项关于水信仰的调查结合起来，并对潜在选民进行抽样调查。结果将详细评估公众对基础水科学和区域水问题的理解，指出可能产生两极分化的水子话题，并确定选民信任的水信息来源。基于这些发现，研究的第二部分将使用实验设计来模拟竞争性政策的引入。将评估传达价值优先级的政策框架的两个方面：通过语言表达的道德基础和作为党派决策启发式功能的传播者身份。此外，将评估信息接受者的特征，包括使用第一部分中开发的评估来衡量的政治自我认同和参与者水知识。本研究将建立一个模型，描述框架刺激的影响和信息接受者的调节特征如何影响竞争条件下公民层面的可持续政策决策。该研究将阐明道德基础框架在何种条件下抑制对潜在分裂性政策的分裂，并更全面地了解非竞争性道德基础框架研究在多大程度上为应用政策情景中的框架有效性设定了现实期望。这项研究的结果将用于编写一系列关于区域水挑战的出版物，这些出版物将提高水科学素养并促进知情的公民决策。研究结果还将发表在水资源传播者指南中，并通过水资源学校与区域决策者分享，以帮助政府官员和其他社区领导人指导富有成效的水资源政策讨论。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Across much of the United States, the public does not consider water policy a divisive topic; however as the limits of regional water resources are approached and water demands must be prioritized, there is high potential for water policy to become politically charged with liberals and conservatives maintaining divergent positions. The ability of water policy communicators to minimize polarization will affect the degree to which stakeholders are willing to work together toward water solutions. Research indicates that communicators can reduce polarization by purposefully framing natural resources challenges with moral positions, such as fairness, loyalty, and harm, that vary in resonance across the political spectrum. However, such studies focus primarily on issues such as climate change, where partisan opinions have already taken hold, not studies in which the objective is to prevent partisanship from forming. Further, few studies sufficiently model the competitive environment of policy introductions, with public officials and outside interests vying to define issues for the public, and with social cues, such as the political affiliations of spokespeople, indicating the positions that fellow partisans are expected to take. This project addresses these gaps, with an experimental assessment of the use of moral frames to prevent partisanship in competitive water policy introductions.The study will be conducted in two parts. First, Rasch modelling will be used to develop a water knowledge assessment. The assessment will be combined with a survey of water beliefs and administered to a sample of potential voters. The results will provide a detailed assessment of the public's comprehension of basic water science and regional water issues, indicate water subtopics from which polarization could develop, and identify the sources voters trust for water information. Based on these findings, the second part of the study will use an experimental design to simulate a competitive policy introduction. Two aspects of policy frames that convey value priorities will be assessed: moral foundations expressed through language and communicator identities that function as partisan decision heuristics. Additionally, characteristics of message recipients that moderate framing effects will be assessed including political self-identity and participant water knowledge as measured using the assessment developed in part one. From this research, a model will be created that describes how the influence of frame stimuli and the moderating characteristics of message recipients affect citizen-level sustainable policy decisions under competitive conditions. The research will clarify the conditions under which moral foundation frames restrain division on potentially divisive policy and provide more complete understanding of the degree to which non-competitive moral foundation framing studies set realistic expectations for frame effectiveness in applied policy scenarios. Findings of the research will be used to frame a series of publications about regional water challenges that increase water science literacy and promote informed citizen-level decision making. Research findings will also be published in a water communicator guide and shared with regional decision makers through Water Schools to help government officials and other community leaders guide productive water policy discourse.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.