Implementing a basic income in Belgium? An experimental study of the impact of metaphors on political preferences

A revised version of this paper has been published in: "Basic Income Studies : an international journal of basic income research" - Vol. 13, no. 2, p. 1-16 https://dial.uclouvain.be/pr/boreal/object/boreal:206958 This research draws on two parallel considerations. On the one hand, we notice that the topic of the basic income yields tremendous debates. Opposing arguments run against each other in the academic literature but also in the society in general (Tobin, 1965 ; Belorgey, 2000 ; Maniquet et Neumann, 2016). Would it be relevant to implement such a mechanism in our societies? And if so, under which conditions? Given the controversial character of the debate, we expect citizens to be easily influenced in their position in favour or in disfavour of the implementation of this project. On the other hand, as highlighted, research has demonstrated that discourses and metaphors in particular may play a key role in the representation that individuals have of an abstract (political) concept (Lakoff et Johnson, 1980 ; Lakoff, 1996 ; Charteris-Black, 2011 ; Perrez et Reuchamps, 2015). On this basis, this article aims at determining to what extent the confrontation of individuals to metaphors illustrating the abstract idea of the basic income does have an impact on the way these people apprehend the basic income. More specifically, we tackle the way respondents consider the opportunity to implement or not the basic income in their country. The goal of this survey conducted among students was experimental