What You Ask Is What You Get: Citizens’ Support for Military Action, But Not Diplomacy, Depends on Question Framing
Abstract
Drawing on past research on judgment and decision making, as well as preference reversal, we investigated the impact of question framing on support for military versus diplomatic conflict resolution strategies. In three studies with two heterogeneous samples from the United States and one representative sample from Israel, preferences for military action were substantially stronger when asked in isolation (i.e., “yes/no” [support/reject]) rather than in conjunction with the alternative of diplomacy (i.e., “either‐or” [military or diplomacy]), sometimes even causing a complete reversal from majority support for military action to majority support for diplomacy. These findings point to problems in public opinion polls and scientific research on military support (usually presenting no alternatives), and address issues important for psychology, political science, sociology, and survey methodology. In a real world context, our findings have important implications for governmental decisions on conflict resolution strategies and the implementation of policies based on public opinion.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Jul 30, 2017
- Source ID
- 10.1111/asap.12133
Entities
People
- Bernhard Leidner
- Jeremy Ginges
Organizations
- Division of Social and Economic Sciences
- The New School for Social Research
- United States Air Force
- United States Department of Defense
- University of Massachusetts Amherst