The CASSM Colloquium Series is a space for researcher's interested in receiving feedback on their experimental designs prior to gathering any data. The abstract for this week's presenter can be found below:
Abstract:
This project explores counter-attitudinal persuasion: how political rhetoric can persuade citizens to support policies they would otherwise oppose. Specifically, I investigate the controversial issue of data centre construction in the US, with different messengers employing various rhetorical frames in a survey experiment.
Respondents read a short statement in support of data centre construction that varies along two dimensions: its frame (a purely factual statement, an appeal to American national pride or an appeal to US-China competition) and its messenger (a non-partisan economic think tank, a Democratic representative or a Republican representative). I measure an attitudinal outcome (support for the construction of the proposed data centre) and behavioural outcomes (whether respondents choose to read an optional article on the issue and how long they spend reading it). I aim to assess whether appeals to national pride and international competition can build support for local data centre construction, something most Americans are inclined to oppose.
Although they are not the primary focus of my presentation, I complement the experiment with comparative case studies of multiple competitive 2026 US congressional races in which data centre development emerged as a significant issue. I will analyse campaign materials and rhetoric to examine whether the frames tested in the experiment appear and how voters respond to them.
