Affective tonal value and perceptions of risk in newspaper readership

This study tests the notion that the affective tonal value (positive or negative connotations) of language in news coverage influences perceptions among readers using reactions to news of an environmental issue as a means of evoking differences. Methods involve constructing two different mock news articles, each altered only in tone (not fact), and a post-test survey of perceptions of risk and of overall situation seriousness. Participants (348 undergraduate students) read either one story or the other and then responded to a survey immediately following. Results show significant differences in perceptions of risk toward others, but not among perceptions of risk to self. There was also marginal support for differences in perceptions of overall situation gravity. No evidence was found for an interaction between the language manipulation and any of the demographics. Results show evidence of a main effect of tonal value, and an augmented third-person effect.