Framing effects in disaster risk communication: the case of coastal erosion in the United States

Abstract

ABSTRACT Governments have the duty to protect their citizens and to prevent natural hazards from turning into disasters. Therefore, they need to communicate effectively about disaster risk to potentially affected populations. We conducted three online survey experiments among United States residents (total N = 1673) to investigate how satellite images combined with information on past events of coastal erosion affect potential framing effects inherent to disaster risk communication. We found a strong framing effect in a decision scenario about human lives, which was reduced when adding an icon array to show the scenario. However, when validating these findings in a more realistic scenario in the context of coastal erosion, we found no framing effects in a risky choice situation and a goal framing setup. Adding satellite images to the textual description of the scenario made respondents more risk seeking and increased their stated behavioural intention to take preventive measures against coastal erosion. The overall awareness among respondents about the issue of coastal erosion was high, resulting in few risky choices and high levels of stated behavioural intentions. Our findings cast doubt on the strength of framing effects in real world scenarios, especially when people hold strong preferences about the issue at stake.