The February 16, 2011 Lab Seminar was presented by Dan Kahan, Elizabeth K. Dollard Professor of Law, Yale Law School, and Michael Jones, Edmond J. Safra Lab Fellow. They presented their research on cultural cognition and campaign finance, which is being conducted in conjunction with the Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School.
The presenters began by describing the basics of campaign finance and cultural cognition. They saw campaign finance as a paradigm case of institutional corruption, but one which does not register with the public as a particularly important issue. When it does register, they think about it in one of two frames: free speech or equal participation. The public likes both frames, depending on whether they favor the groups invoked. (For example, liberals favor environmentalists, unions, and pro-choice groups; conservatives favor the NRA and pro-life groups.) However, the perceived risks of a particular issue could be different in a different time and place, and the degree to which something is perceived as a risk seems to be a function of what the current dominant narrative is in the public. The presenters went on to discuss the importance of narrative in communication, noting that narratives are generally far more effective than other types of communication (lists, arguments, etc.) at persuading and conveying information to the public. Finally, they discussed their research design, which involves using culturally tailored narratives to frame messages in an attempt to de-bias the ways individuals process those messages.
Some participants expressed concern at the idea of using culturally tailored narratives to convey information, questioning the relationship between facts and narrative, and wondering if by their elevation of the narrative aspect of communication, the researchers were being agnostic about the facts. However, it was noted that the mere presence of certain facts can be threatening to a person's identity, and that the point of this research is not to make people believe any particular thing, but rather to use narrative to create a sense of identity engagement with the material, as a means of alleviating the identity threat that biases people against certain facts.
Bringing the discussion back to the issue of campaign finance, participants pointed out that while the public does not recognize campaign finance as an important issue, it is quite relevant to the other issues that they see as being of greater concern. Others noted the importance of figuring out how to present the information in such a way that people are willing to invest the time to understand it--an issue that this research attempts to address.
In conclusion, seminar participants discussed the research presented on campaign finance, and the use of narrative to allow people to process information in a less-biased, more meaningful way. While some participants were hesitant about the conclusions presented, others saw potential for the use of this research in communicating information to the public.