Effects of News Frames in Texts About Topics of Conflicting Evidence on Risk Perception, Emotions, and Learning

• In Event: Learning From Text in Today’s Society: Reconciling Multiple Incoherent Sources of Information

Abstract

Internet and print media are important sources for lifelong learning. They often present fragile and/or
conflicting information about scientific topics, using different news frames, for example, a human interest
frame which emotionalizes information and accentuates individual affectedness. More generally, news
frames emphasize certain aspects of a topic and make some specific information more salient (de Vreese,
2005). Therefore, these frames potentially influence how people perceive and feel about information, and
what they learn from texts.
In order to investigate these effects, we conducted two experiments comparing a neutral versus a
sensational (i.e., human interest) news frame condition (Exp. 1, 72 participants) and a neutral versus three
variants of a human interest frame condition (Exp. 2, 91 participants) concerning risk perception, elicited
emotions, and effects on learning. Both studies presented positive, negative and neutral information about
invasive species in all conditions. All participants rated their emotions and risk perception after reading
the texts and completed pretests and posttests consisting of multiple choice items and open questions.
We found that a sensational human interest frame, as compared to a neutral frame, led to higher risk
perception (Exp. 1: F(1, 67) = 63.48, p < .001; η² = .49; Exp. 2: planned contrast: p < .001; η² = .19) and
stronger negative emotions (Exp. 1: F(1, 67) = 6.44; p < .05; η² = .08; Exp. 2: p < .01; η² = .09).
Additionally, participants in the sensational human interest frame conditions learned more facts, as
assessed by a multiple-choice posttest (Exp. 1: F(1, 67) = 4.64, p < .05; η² = .07; Exp. 2: p < .05; η² =
.05). There was also a difference in what participants considered to be most important in their answers to
open questions: Participants in the sensational human interest frame conditions mentioned significantly
more negative aspects (Exp. 1: F(1, 67) = 56.00, p < .001; η² = .46; Exp. 2: p < .05; η² = .06) and
significantly less positive aspects (Exp. 1: F(1, 67) = 70.38, p < .001; η² = .51; Exp. 2: p < .001; η² = .16).
Taken together, our results indicate that sensational human interest frames increase perceived risk and
negative emotions. Additionally, they point to a potential dilemma: Sensational human interest frames
may improve learning on the one hand, but may lead to a (mal-)prioritization of mainly negative aspects
and almost ignorance of positive aspects on the other hand. This latter effect could be termed as seductive
emphasis in analogy to the seductive details effect (e.g., Harp & Mayer, 1998). It can be highly
problematic instructional settings.

Authors

• Christine Otieno, University of Freiburg

• Hans Spada, University of Freiburg

• Alexander Renkl, University of Freiburg