Effects of Broadness and Scopes of Frames on #MeToo Movement

• In Event: Public Opinion Experiments

Abstract

Since October 2017, when there was waking of sexual harassment allegations against Harvey Weinstein, the #MeToo movement has drawn much attention in the U.S. and around the globe (Fileborn, Loney-Howes 2019). It started from a social media movement with millions of participants using the hashtag and spread to tangible real-world activities. Scholars argue that social movement frames affect mobilization, and framing social identities can be a powerful tool to garner supporters (Snow and Benford 1988; Huddy 2013; Bonilla and Tillery 2020). In this article, I test the effect of different frames─equality, women, and feminist frames─on attitudes and behaviors toward the #MeToo movement by using a survey experiment. I demonstrate that frames’ broadness and scope impact participants’ different levels of support for, and action in, the #MeToo movement. This result suggests that activists can adopt different scopes of frames to efficiently garner adherents based on their target number of supporters and their actions.

Author

• Seoungin Choi, University of Arizona