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Elite Cue Experiment×Issue Framing Experiment×
FieldPolitical PsychologyPolitical Psychology
FamilyProcess / pipelineProcess / pipeline
Year of origin19921997
OriginatorJohn Zaller; Stephen NicholsonThomas Nelson; Dennis Chong & James Druckman
TypeSurvey experiment on source cuesSurvey/lab experiment
Seminal sourceZaller, J. R. (1992). The Nature and Origins of Mass Opinion. Cambridge University Press. ISBN: 9780521407861Nelson, T. E., Clawson, R. A., & Oxley, Z. M. (1997). Media framing of a civil liberties conflict and its effect on tolerance. American Political Science Review, 91(3), 567-583. DOI ↗
AliasesParty Cue Experiment, Source Cue Persuasion Experiment, Partisan Endorsement Cue Design, Elite Endorsement ExperimentFraming Effects Experiment, Emphasis Framing Study, Equivalence Framing Experiment
Related34
SummaryAn elite cue experiment isolates the persuasive power of source endorsements by holding a policy message constant and randomly varying who is said to support it. Grounded in John Zaller's receive-accept-sample model of mass opinion, which holds that citizens take cues from trusted political elites rather than reasoning from first principles, the design reveals how much opinion moves simply because a party or leader takes a side. Stephen Nicholson's work on polarizing cues shows that in-party endorsements can persuade while out-party endorsements provoke backlash, making the cue, not the argument, the engine of opinion change.An issue framing experiment manipulates how a political issue is described, emphasizing different considerations, to test how framing shifts opinion. Nelson, Clawson and Oxley's (1997) classic study showed that framing a Klan rally as a free-speech issue versus a public-order issue changed tolerance judgments, and Chong and Druckman (2007) systematized framing theory and the experimental methods used to estimate framing effects.
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ScholarGateCompare methods: Elite Cue Experiment · Issue Framing Experiment. Retrieved 2026-06-24 from https://scholargate.app/en/compare