Summary

Values are a crucial part of our framing strategies. They help progressive organizations and campaigners make the case for why the issues we work on are important, and they can motivate collective action toward big, structural changes.

In a moment where executive orders are designed to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and memoranda are designating nonprofits as domestic terroristic organizations based on their stated missions, many in civil society are questioning how to communicate their values effectively. This research shows how the values of Fairness, Stability, and Freedom can help us do that.

We focus here on the values of Freedom, Fairness, and Stability because they have broad appeal throughout the US public and are used by communicators across the political spectrum. This sets them apart from values that tend to be used in more conservative communications (e.g., Tradition) or in more progressive communications (e.g., Solidarity). All values are contested in the sense that they can be understood and acted upon in different ways, but these values are particularly politically contested.

This report is organized into the following sections:

• Executive summary. A short overview of the main findings and recommendations.
• What are values, what are mindsets? A brief introduction to what we mean by values and cultural mindsets as well as how this research differs from message testing.
• Methodology. A brief summary of the methods we used in this research project, which are covered in more detail, along with the evidence supporting our recommendations, in our Methods Supplement.
• Findings and recommendations. A detailed unpacking of how the US public thinks about Fairness, Stability, and Freedom, and what the research tells us about how we can most effectively use and engage with these values in our communications.