Issue Importance as a Moderator of Framing Effects

Framing effects research addresses how frames in the news media affect cognitions, attitudes, and preferences. A growing amount of research is devoted to the question which individual and contextual variables can enhance, limit or obliterate framing effects. However, the fundamental question whether framing effects may vary depending on the particular issue at stake has not been addressed. Based on an experimental study, this article investigates the extent to which framing effects differ in magnitude as well as process, depending on how important an issue is. The study shows that a high importance issue yields marginal effects and a low importance issue large effects. This moderating function of issue importance is not fully driven by individual-level importance assessments, and issue importance rather functions as a contextual moderator of framing effects. We additionally find that individual issue importance moderates the mediational process for a low importance issue. The implications for future framing effects research are discussed.