Replication Data for: For and Against Brexit: A Survey Experiment of the Impact of Campaign Effects on Public Attitudes toward EU Membership

What can the case of the 2016 referendum on UK membership of the European Union (EU) teach us about message framing effects and arguments that persuade citizens whether or not to support the EU? In this article, we report findings from an innovative online survey experiment based on a two-wave panel design. Our findings show that despite the expectation that campaign effects are small for high salience issues – such as Brexit – the potential for campaign effects were high for the pro-EU frames. This suggests that within an asymmetrical information environment – where the arguments for one side of an issue (anti-EU) are “priced in”, while arguments for the other side (pro-EU) have been understated – the potential for campaign effects in a single direction are substantial. To the extent that this environment is reflected in other referendum campaigns, the potential effect of pro-EU frames may be substantial.