The psychological research on framing isn’t new, but in areas like attitudes toward politically charged issues, it has a much more recent history. Simply put, the psychology of framing is the examination of how the presentation of something (e.g., emphasizing losses or gains) biases choices/behaviors and attitudes. Since comparisons have been made between the situation in Syria and the missteps we took in going to war in Iraq,[4] a look at the framing of the issues surrounding the Iraq wars may shed light on why nearly 60% of Americans oppose a U.S. intervention in Syria, according to a Reuters poll[5] (only 9% are supportive and 30.2% are supportive if chemical weapons had been used by the Syrian government).
A framing study in 2008 examined a multitude of factors that
influenced attitudes regarding the Iraq wars (Borrelli & Lockerbie), and
found, for example, that when asking Americans whether or not they support the
Iraq war, merely mentioning U.N. or international support for U.S. involvement
in Iraq lends American citizens to be much more likely to support the war.
However, when the same question is posed with a mention of a lack of international
support, American citizens are not supportive of the U.S. engaging in the Iraq
war (Borrelli & Lockerbie). Applying
these framing effects to the Syria question, not only is there a lack of
international support for our proposed intervention,[6] but
there is also a lack of interest among U.S. politicians (across both parties)
to wait for the U.N. to inspect chemical weapon sites,[7] which
may ring eerily reminiscent of WMDs in the days George W. Bush was in office (as
I write this my phone buzzed with the CNN headline, ‘Clothing and soil samples
collected after Syria gas attack tested positive for sarin, UK PM’s office
says’[8]).
Questions regarding support also skewed in favor of the Iraq
wars if they were framed in such a manner that Hussein’s threats to Saudi
Arabia, WMDs, or terrorism were mentioned (Borrelli & Lockerbie, 2008). Similarly,
as noted, there is an increase in support for a U.S. intervention in Syria from
9% to 30.2% when sarin is mentioned. There is talk of terrorism in the form of
a response from Hezbollah directed at Israel should the U.S. intervene in
Syria, but the majority of media outlets have dubbed the repercussions (largely
emanating from Syria, Russia, Iran, and China) to a U.S. intervention as exaggerated
and unlikely to transpire.[9] In fact,
in an article inaptly titled,‘5 Possible Repercussions of a U.S. Military
Strike on Syria,’ ABC news addresses only 4 repercussions (the 5th
repercussion is that there is no repercussion!). The other 4 repercussions
noted are softened or muted by policy wonks. Obama’s appeal to action in Syria hasn’t
gained traction in the psychology of Americans possibly because his claim that
there is a direct threat to our own national security[10] isn’t
as convincing as WMDs and terrorism after 9/11. The semantic framing of the
Iraq war as the ‘War on Terror’ by the Bush administration appealed to American
psychology as the confrontation of an evil and irrational adversary that is
lacking in the media coverage of the Syrian conflict (Harmon & Muenchen,
2009).
One very interesting finding in the study of the framing of
the Iraq war was the effect of the names of the political actors in the
forefront of the conflict (Borrelli & Lockerbie, 2008). An explicit mention
of George H. W. Bush or George W. Bush led to an oppositional stance on the
Iraq war, while explicit mention of Saddam Hussein led to increased support for
the Iraq war (Borrelli & Lockerbie). The authors suggest further study into
why the American psyche is affected in such a curious manner, but there appear
to be parallels with the current Syria situation. Though there is a good amount
of coverage of Assad, the dominant theme of the U.S. news cycle revolves around
Obama (e.g., Obama pressing/almost ignoring Congress to push forward with a
U.S. intervention, Obama versus Putin at the G-20 summit over Syria, etc.).
Perhaps this framing with Obama as the dominant focus of the U.S. media
coverage of Syria has dampened support for a U.S. intervention just as it did
when George H. W. Bush or George W. Bush was mentioned in the context of the
Iraq war.
Framing effects are much more pronounced when attitudes are
not strongly held, but maybe after 9/11 and the Iraq and Afghan wars, attitudes
regarding foreign policy have calcified into a non-interventionist mindset
among the American public. To think we are no longer susceptible to framing
effects, however, would be naïve and dangerous. There is a wealth of research
on attitude change suggesting that a more elaborate type of thinking can elicit
lasting attitude change less resistant to persuasion, while focusing on superficial
things like the characteristics of the speaker will lead to only temporary
attitude change (Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). Maybe we, as the American public,
should consciously engage in a more elaborate processing of issues that are
central to the well-being of our country. Maybe we should dare to eliminate or
at least blunt framing effects when it comes to such pertinent issues like
whether or not we should go to war in Iraq or whether or not we should intervene
in Syria.
Borrelli, S. A., & Lockerbie, B. (2008). Framing Effects
on Public Opinion During Prewar and Major Combat Phases of the U.S. Wars with
Iraq. Social Science Quarterly (Wiley-Blackwell), 89(2), 502-522.
Harmon, M., & Muenchen, R. (2009). Semantic Framing in
the Build-Up to the Iraq War: Fox versus CNN and other U. S. broadcast news
programs. ETC: A Review Of General Semantics, 66(1),
12-26.
Petty, R.E.,& Cacioppo,J.T. (1986). The elaboration
likelihood model of persuasion. Advances
in Experimental Social Psychology, 19, 123-162.
[1]http://www.enotes.com/united-states-foreign-policies-toward-genocide-reference/united-states-foreign-policies-toward-genocide
[2]http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/mar/31/usa.rwanda
[3]http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1314&dat=19940204&id=al1WAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9_ADAAAAIBAJ&pg=6657,1941148
[4]http://swampland.time.com/2013/09/05/politicos-on-syria-we-cannot-afford-another-iraq/,
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/colinfreeman/100234183/we-dont-want-syria-becoming-another-iraq-but-was-iraq-really-such-a-disaster/,
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57601106/obama-on-syria-strike-this-is-not-iraq-and-this-is-not-afghanistan/
[5]http://news.yahoo.com/syria-war-escalates-americans-cool-u-intervention-reuters-003146054.html
[7]http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-dismisses-un-inspections-in-syria-of-alleged-chemical-weapons-sites/2013/09/04/2b1cf3c4-14e3-11e3-880b-7503237cc69d_story.html
[8]http://www.cnn.com/2013/09/05/world/meast/syria-civil-war/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
[9]http://abcnews.go.com/US/repercussions-us-military-strike-syria/story?id=20093229&singlePage=true
[10]http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/29/world/middleeast/us-facing-test-on-data-to-back-action-on-syria.html?_r=0
