There Is Water Everywhere: How News Framing Amplified the Effect of Ecological Worldviews on Preference for Flooding Protection Policy

The purpose of this study was to examine the interactive effect of worldviews and media frames on policy preference. Using flooding as a case study, we examined the interplay of ecological worldviews and news framed either as emphasizing harmony with nature or as mastery over nature, on individuals’ preference for flood protection policy. A total of 255 undergraduate students participated in a 2 (ecological worldviews: balance-with-nature vs. human-domination-over-nature) x 2 (media frames: harmony frame vs. mastery frame) between-subjects experiment. The findings indicated that both the “balance-with-nature” worldview and the “human-domination-over-nature” worldview had significant impacts on preference for flood protection policy. Furthermore, the harmony frame amplified the effect of the balance-with-nature worldview in supporting a natural approach to flood protection. In contrast, the mastery frame amplified the effect of the human-domination-over-nature worldview on the preference for a structural approach to flood protection. Implications are discussed.