How Moral Reframing Enhances Political Persuasion: The Role of Processing Fluency and Self-Affirmation

Abstract

This study examined the psychological mechanisms underlying the persuasive effects of moral reframing—matching message content to recipients’ core moral foundations—by focusing on processing fluency, message processing depth, and self-affirmation as mediators. An online experiment conducted in South Korea demonstrated that, across two policy issues, moral reframing promoted processing fluency and self-affirmation, thereby enhancing the perceived persuasiveness of policy advocacy messages. Furthermore, self-affirmation increased support for policies advocated by the messages. However, the depth of message processing did not differ between participants who read messages aligned with their moral foundations and those exposed to mismatched messages. In sum, the results suggest that moral reframing enhances persuasion by facilitating reflection on positive self-aspects and intuitive processing, rather than by encouraging deeper processing of the messages.