The Nation or The Leader?: Exploring the Effect of Framing in News Coverage of International Conflicts

Shu Wang; Xilin Li; Chengyue Huang; Christopher K. Hsee

doi:10.1017/jdm.2024.36

The Nation or The Leader? Exploring the Effect of Framing in News Coverage of International Conflicts

Shu Wang, Xilin Li, Chengyue Huang, Christopher K. Hsee

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Abstract

This research explores a phenomenon that we see nearly every day and has implications for how we view people in other nations: Different media outlets may report the same international events either in terms of the nation (e.g., “Russia invades Ukraine”) or in terms of the leader (e.g., “Putin invades Ukraine”). Five studies, conducted during the 2022 Russia-Ukraine Conflict and involving both field and experimental data, find that readers of nation-framed news about the conflict had worse impressions of the people in the associated nation (Russians) than readers of the corresponding leader-framed version. We explain the psychology behind this framing effect and identify its moderators. Our research underscores the importance of responsible media practices in shaping global perceptions.

Original language	English
Article number	e10
Number of pages	14
Journal	Judgment and Decision Making
Volume	20
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1017/jdm.2024.36
Publication status	Published - 22 Jan 2025

Bibliographical note

The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in OSF at https://osf.io/d5zkm/?view_only=6d4e2ee1ab674e1fb92e15a4f9a0f639.

Keywords

Discrimination
Judgment and decision-making
Social perception

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10.1017/jdm.2024.36Licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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