Identifying attributions of causality in political text

Causal attributions are claims that link an outcome to a cause (Kirfel et al., 2022). Causality is so embedded in human reasoning that causal attributions have been shown to emerge immediately in times of crisis (Graham and Singh, 2024), as well as offered spontaneously when people are asked to think about political issues (Iyengar, 1987). Furthermore, because causal attributions are relational, rather than treating actors and events as isolated, they highlight the underlying relational reasoning people use to connect events, assign responsibility, and justify actions (V ossing, 2023). Framing is fundamentally a process of making causal explanations, or communicating causal attributions: "[Frames] define problems-determine what a causal agent is doing with what costs and benefits, usually measured in terms of common cultural values; diagnose causes-identify the forces creating the problem; make moral judgments-evaluate causal agents and their effects; and suggest remedies-offer and justify treatments for the problems and predict their likely effects."(Entman,