basic income; framing; metaphors; political discourse
Abstract :
[en] 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 prelim- inary 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 in- crease 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.
Research Center/Unit :
Lilith - Liège, Literature, Linguistics - ULiège
Disciplines :
Languages & linguistics
Author, co-author :
Legein, Thomas; Université Catholique de Louvain - UCL
Vandeleene, Audrey; Lunds Universitet
Randour, François; Université Catholique de Louvain - UCL
Heyvaert, Pauline ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de langues modernes : ling., litt. et trad. > Langue néerlandaise moderne et linguistique synchronique
Perrez, Julien ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de langues modernes : ling., litt. et trad. > Langue néerlandaise moderne et linguistique synchronique
Reuchamps, Min; Université Catholique de Louvain - UCL
Language :
English
Title :
Framing the Basic Income: An Experimental Study of How Arguments and Metaphors Influence Individuals’ Opinion Formation
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