Framing a ‘social problem': emotion in anti-abortion activists' depiction of the abortion debate

Social psychological research on activism typically focuses on individuals’ social identifications. We complement such research through exploring how activists frame an issue as a social problem. Specifically, we explore anti-abortion activists’ representation of abortion and the abortion debate’s protagonists so as to recruit support for the anti-abortion cause.

Using interview data obtained with UK-based anti-abortion activists (N = 15), we consider how activists characterized women having abortions, proabortion campaigners, and anti-abortion campaigners. In particular, we consider the varied ways in which emotion featured in the representation of these social actors. Emotion featured in different ways. Sometimes, it was depicted as constituting embodied testament to the nature of reality. Sometimes, it was depicted as blocking the rational appraisal of reality.

Our analysis considers how such varied meanings of emotion shaped the characterization of abortion and the abortion debate’s protagonists such that antiabortion activists were construed as speaking for women and their interests. We discuss how our analysis of the framing of issues as social problems complements and extends social psychological analyses of activism.