Insights

May 22, 2023

Republicans’ “Defund the IRS” bill

An editorial by the Washington Post was highly effective at increasing net opposition to Republicans’ “Defund the IRS” bill, while the political messages we tested had no net effects.

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January 20, 2023

Case Study: Innovation Ohio and Message Development

The Grow Progress Team Summary: Innovation Ohio used Audience Understanding surveys to inspire their team to create more persuasive messages.  In early 2022, Innovation Ohio was looking for a new…

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October 6, 2022

Case Study: Flavored Tobacco Ban Ballot Measure

Summary: A message highlighting the tobacco companies that are funding the campaign to oppose California’s Proposition 31 was highly effective at increasing support for the measure. 

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September 27, 2022

Case Study: Climate Messaging

Summary: Language from a news article that linked recent storms to climate change was clearly effective at increasing respondents’ sense of urgency around climate change.

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September 14, 2022

Case Study: Student Loan Cancellation

While none of the messages tested increased support for the policy to cancel student loans, President Biden’s message persuaded people that Democrats were the party to trust on the issue of student debt and college affordability.

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May 25, 2022

The effects of Steve Kerr’s remarks on gun violence

Summary: Steve Kerr’s pre-game speech about the need for federal action on gun violence prevention had dramatic effects on support for new gun violence prevention laws.

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January 14, 2022

Voting Rights

A message based in the values of Merit and Patriotism increased support for the Freedom to Vote Act among Republicans and white people.

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December 17, 2021

Workers’ rights and protections

Support for increased workers’ rights is high, but much lower when pitted against concerns about inflation. Two messages show promise at increasing support for new workers’ rights and protections.

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December 13, 2021

The economy

Each of four wide-ranging messages failed to improve approval ratings of Biden on the economy. 

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December 3, 2021

Rittenhouse and Vigilantism

A message that highlighted neo-Nazis’ response to the Rittenhouse verdict sharply decreased public appetite for vigilante law enforcement. 

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November 22, 2021

Regulating Facebook

Right-wing messaging that paints Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen as a Democratic operative was effective at reducing Republican support for stricter regulation of Facebook. Pro-regulation messages using conservative values or a Republican Senator as messenger were effective at reversing that effect.

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November 12, 2021

Rising prices

Summary: None of the messages we tested were effective at changing people’s minds about the root cause of our current inflation issue. Two messages caused backlash, increasing the proportion of people who blame the government. We recommend a high degree of caution around messaging on inflation.

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