| This study examines how President Bush successfully promoted risky changes in foreign policy against Afghanistan and Iraq and attempted to maintain those policies in the face of growing costs. Certain scholars argue that the American public may be willing to accept risky foreign policy changes if they are presented as future gains with a clear strategy for success, in other words, a cost-benefit calculation. Accordingly, if the public sees reasonable benefit in future victory, then the public should be willing to expend the costs of going to war. However, this line of thinking presumes a rational public and runs counter to prospect theory's behavioral observations, which leads towards an incongruent explanation: the public's acceptance of Bush's Iraq policy and its inherent risks and costs occurred through loss, not gain framing. In order to support a prospect theory framing effects explanation, this study will demonstrate that various forms of loss framing show a stronger correlation with public opinion changes than gain framing rhetoric. |
