Changing your political mind: The impact of a metaphor on citizens’ representations and preferences for federalism

[en] Federalism is often presented through metaphors, but little is known about the impact of such metaphors. Two experiments were conducted in Belgium presenting federalism as Tetris – with control and treatment groups – in order to grasp the influence of this metaphor. The first experiment reveals that being exposed to text with the Tetris metaphor influences respondents’ representations of federalism towards a more institutional representation and towards more regional autonomy. The second experiment confirms the importance of the text, and more specifically of the metaphor, if political knowledge is taken into account. Respondents with a lower level of political knowledge are those who are influenced by the metaphor, whereas respondents with a higher level are not. Therefore, framing the future of Belgian federalism using the metaphor of Tetris does matter: it affects both individuals’ representations of the federalization process and, consequently, their preferences vis-à-vis the institutional future of the country.

Research center :

Lilith - Liège, Literature, Linguistics - ULiège

Disciplines :

Political science, public administration & international relations

Author, co-author :

Reuchamps, Min; Université Catholique de Louvain - UCL > ISPOLE

Dodeigne, Jérémy; Université de Namur - UNamur

Perrez, Julien ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de langues modernes : ling., litt. et trad. > Langue néerlandaise moderne et linguistique synchronique

Language :

English

Title :

Changing your political mind: The impact of a metaphor on citizens’ representations and preferences for federalism

Publication date :

2018

Journal title :

Regional and Federal Studies

ISSN :

1359-7566

eISSN :

1743-9434

Publisher :

Frank Cass Publishers, United Kingdom

Pages :

151-175

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 06 July 2017

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