Voice4Change wanted to gather robust evidence to guide them on which messages would be most effective in shifting public views on racism, and to garner support for structural changes to national policies and institutions.

Objective.

The approach to reframing narratives on race has been informed by strategic communications theory, using messages that were designed to invoke values that are shared by race equality advocates and their target audiences. Voice4Change designed 36 messages, carefully worded to reflect life-affirming values such as dignity, opportunity and safety.

Solution.

Savanta’s research design was based on the work conducted by the Frameworks Institute and Joseph Rowntree Foundation on reframing poverty – recognised as a cornerstone study in strategic communications. This involved an experimental design (‘AB test’) to identify the impact of seeing a message compared to a control group, in order to identify whether the message had been effective in prompting a different view on key outcome measures. A complex regression analysis design further identified whether exposure to a message predicted a likely shift in views amongst different groups in the population. The analysis was enabled by a robust sample of 20,000 interviews across England and Scotland.

Results.

The first published report can be found on ReframingRace.org, and a second, more detailed report, will follow this year.

Voice4Change have described this project as delivering ‘ground-breaking data’. The results of this project will be directly applied to the messages that are used in their race equality campaigning work. It will also inform an engagement programme with an active network of advocates who are working to address racism in society at a national and local community level.

As well as all of the sampling robustness and quantitative and qualitative analysis that one would expect from a reputable agency, the team helped to refine the messages being tested and to ensure the survey for the study delivered the insights that we were seeking. Their advisory input and experience of our particular type of study was invaluable.

Dr Sanjiv Lingayah, Director at Reframing Race