How Affinity with Places Affects the Indirect Experience of Extreme Weather Events

When media talk about climate change, they often report on extreme weather in places around the world. One factor that may explain perceptions and reactions to such reports is people’s relationships with the affected places. We test a framework of place affinity, as indicated by several place beliefs, to describe these people-place relationships. Based on previous research and two pilot studies, we employ a three-condition between-participants experiment to test whether place affinity helps explain reactions to news reports. [N] participants were either shown one of two reports on extreme flooding events in high-affinity and low-affinity countries or a control (general article on climate change and flooding). Reading about extreme weather in a high-affinity place led to [stronger [DVs] /stronger [DV] but no [DV]/did not lead to stronger [DVs]] than in a low-affinity place. [Either treatment condition/high-affinity treatment/low-affinity treatment/neither treatment] was more effective in increasing [DV[s]] than the control condition. We also analysed participants’ open responses and found evidence of [type[s] of] emotion-regulation strategies employed when reading the news articles. Our study thus contributes to the literature by testing our theoretical framework of place affinity and by investigating factors shaping the effectiveness of climate coverage. Registered report stage 1; detailed analysis plan; materials for experimental conditions; questionnaire items. peerReviewed other

当媒体报道气候变化议题时，往往会聚焦全球各地发生的极端天气事件。影响受众对这类报道的认知与反应的关键因素之一，是其与报道中受影响地区的关联关系。我们以多项地域信念为指标，构建了地域亲和性（place affinity）框架以刻画这类人-地关系。基于既往研究与两项预实验，我们采用三条件被试间实验设计，验证地域亲和性能否解释受众对气候相关新闻报道的反应。本研究共招募[N]名被试，将其随机分配至三组：分别阅读针对高亲和性国家与低亲和性国家极端洪涝事件的两篇报道之一，或阅读对照组文章（关于气候变化与洪涝的一般性科普文章）。相较于低亲和性地区，阅读高亲和性地区的极端天气报道会引发[因变量（Dependent Variable，DV）得分更高/因变量（Dependent Variable，DV）得分更高但无显著差异/未引发因变量（Dependent Variable，DV）得分更高]的结果。[任一实验处理组/高亲和性处理组/低亲和性处理组/两组均未]在提升因变量[DVs]方面优于对照组。此外，我们对被试的开放式作答进行编码分析，发现了受众在阅读新闻报道时所采用的[若干类型的]情绪调节策略相关证据。综上，本研究通过验证地域亲和性理论框架，并探究影响气候报道传播效果的关键因素，为相关学术领域补充了新的研究证据。本研究为预注册报告第一阶段；包含详细分析计划、实验条件所用材料与问卷题项。同行评议 其他