A University of Illinois Springfield researcher has co-authored a new study showing that the way political leaders talk about refugees can significantly influence public opinion.

The study, published June 26 in the Journal of Elections, Public Opinion and Parties, found that people are more likely to support stricter refugee policies when refugees are described as “potential terrorists.” When described as “families fleeing violence,” support for restrictions drops.

Isabel Skinner, assistant professor in the UIS School of Politics and International Affairs, co-authored the study with Timothy Gravelle of Wilfrid Laurier University and Vox Pop Labs. The researchers surveyed more than 9,800 people in the United States, Canada and Australia to measure how different descriptions affected views on refugee policy.

“Despite efforts by leaders to link many issues to national security, it is important to remember that refugee resettlement and asylum are, at their core, humanitarian issues,” Skinner said. “In this study, we find that the public may be persuaded by humanitarian language, particularly in contexts such as the United States today, where that framing is less common.”

The study found that public opinion shifts depending on how the issue is framed. In the United States, politically moderate respondents were significantly more likely to support reducing refugee admissions after seeing a message that linked refugees to terrorism. When shown a message describing refugees as families fleeing violence, support for restrictions fell noticeably.

In Canada, the threat-based message had an even stronger impact than in the United States. Australians, by contrast, showed smaller shifts, especially in response to the humanitarian message.

Political beliefs were also a major factor. Conservatives in all three countries were more likely to support reducing refugee numbers. However, the humanitarian message led to slightly less support for restrictions among some right-leaning respondents, including Republicans in the United States and Australia’s Liberal-National Coalition.

The authors say the findings matter because refugee and asylum issues are often debated in highly political terms. With record numbers of people displaced around the world, how leaders frame these issues could affect public support for refugee policies.

The full article, “Framing refugees: experimental evidence from the United States, Canada, and Australia,” is available online.