News headline themes and approval of police use-of-force: evidence from a national survey experiment

Abstract Objectives This study tests whether headline themes from news coverage of police use-of-force influence general public approval of legally reasonable police use-of-force. Methods In a between-subjects survey experiment ( N = 2,495), a nationally stratified sample of U.S. adults was randomly assigned to view four real newspaper headlines representing one of four thematic conditions or a neutral control. The headline themes were derived from a structural topic model of three decades of news coverage. Respondents then completed three items measuring approval of police use-of-force. Treatment effects were estimated using Bayesian model averaging across four ordinal regression models. Results Protest & Reform and Race–themed headlines reduced approval by about 7% points relative to control. National Politics–themed headlines showed a smaller and more uncertain reduction. Official Statements produced no detectable difference. Conclusions Headline themes from real news coverage can influence general attitudes toward police use-of-force.