Seeking A Framing Effect: Millennials and a Sugary Beverage Tax

Mary Morgado*, Laura Andress, Kyle Strother, School of Public Health, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506

Field (Broad Category): Nursing & Public Health (Oral-Science & Technology) 

Student’s Major: Public Health 

Introduction: This research is based on the notion of the embodied brain and the unconscious reasoning process introduced by George Lakoff to explain how phenomena are incorporated into the brain, stimulating the use of available cognitive models to reason. Public health graduate students at WVU used talkback testing to interview forty millennials to assess support for/against a sugary beverage tax based on two different framing messages. The study analyzed the interviews to identify the dominant cognitive models triggered by the framing message and used to reason about a sugary beverage tax for West Virginia. Methods: This 2019 research on millennials and framing was part of a public health graduate course, issue analysis and the non-medical determinants of health. After agreeing to participate in the study, individuals were scheduled for a recorded interview (in-person or video-chat). The method used for the interviews was talkback testing. Participants were exposed to two framing messages. Interviews were transcribed and coded. Results: General Findings Whether exposed to either frame, the results were that participants reasoned through the cognitive model labeled “corporate greed”. Alternatively, across both frames, the preferred strategy was increasing physical activity in schools. Implications: The implications of the study posed a paradox. Across both frames, the most frequent cognitive model was corporate greed while the most frequent strategy (increase physical activity in schools) was aligned with individualism. What frame will move millennials to steer away from individualism and use the cognitive model of corporate greed to formulate external policy action? 

Funding: 

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: WVU's Research Apprenticeship Program (RAP) & accompanying HONR 297-level course