When are support and opposition not opposites? Depth of processing as a moderator of the valence-framing effect

Abstract

Prior research has demonstrated the valence-framing effect, in which leading people to frame a preference negatively (e.g., I oppose Romney') yields stronger attitudes than does leading people to frame that same preference positively (e.g., I support Obama'). Three studies tested whether or not depth of processing (as operationalized by manipulations of motivation and ability to cognitively process) moderate the effect. The valence-framing effect was replicated, such that opposers manifested stronger attitudes than did supporters, but only when attitudes were relevant to the participants (Experiments 1 and 3), and when participants were not under cognitive load (Experiment 2). Our results thus identify depth of processing as an important moderator of the valence-framing effect and provide potential insight into the effect's mechanism.