Say It With Candy: The Power of Framing Tax Increases as Items

Framing tax increases as frequent purchases appears to be a popular message strategy to generate donations and elicit support for policies. We test whether this strategy is effective at obtaining support for tax increases through two survey experiments. Results demonstrate that this message strategy—framing tax increases in terms of items—is more effective than stating the increase in terms of a yearly or weekly amount. This strategy appears to be effective when the amount of a tax increase is framed as a hedonic item and appears to be particularly effective as the tax amount requested increases and among those uninvolved with the issue under consideration.