Selfish Corporations.

This article examines how perceptions of corporate responsibility influence public support for economic policies, particularly corporate bailouts, through a cognitive model of limited and associative memory recall. Using a large-scale, nationally representative survey of 6,727 U.S. adults conducted during the COVID-19 crisis, the study finds widespread "big business discontent," where respondents believe large corporations fall short of societal expectations on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues. Experimental variations—including question order and exposure to animated videos framing corporate behavior positively, negatively, or economically—demonstrate that priming respondents to think about corporate responsibility generally reduces support for bailouts, while framing bailouts as economic stabilization increases support. Notably, positive messaging about corporate responsibility can backfire by triggering recall of negative corporate experiences, especially among liberals and younger individuals, highlighting the complex interplay between memory, framing, and policy preferences. The findings are robust across self-reported attitudes and costly behavioral measures, such as petition signing and donations, and suggest important implications for corporate and political communication strategies.