Expressive Responses to News Stories About Extremist Groups: A Framing Experiment.

The USA Patriot Act enacted by Congress in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks has stirred public debate about the tradeoff between domestic security and civil liberties. In light of this debate, this 2 x 2 experiment presented participants with news stories about government efforts to restrict the civil liberties of an "extremist" individual or group (news frame) advocating for a cause either supported or opposed by the respondent (cause predisposition). Results indicate that willingness to take expressive action was greatest for individual-framed stories about a cause opposed by the respondent, and for group-framed stories about a cause supported by the respondent. This study underscores the conditional nature of media framing effects. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]