Green Narratives: How Affective Responses to Media Messages Influence Risk Perceptions and Policy Preferences About Environmental Hazards

This study examined the relationships between narrative involvement, affect, risk perceptions, and environmental policy preferences. Experiment 1 involved a 3 (news, documentary, entertainment) x 2 (hydraulic fracturing, genetically modified organisms) mixed between- and within-subjects experiment. Results indicated a serial mediation model in which narrative involvement increased the likelihood of a negative affective response, in turn increasing risk perceptions and policy preferences for stricter regulation of environmental hazards. In Experiment 2, the pathway was tested for positively valenced content. Narrative involvement with positively valenced media produced a significantly lower negative affective response than negatively valenced media, but no difference terms of positive affect.