Does news framing affect citizens’ attitudes towards restricting the unvaccinated? An experiment on moderating effect of trust in institutions

This study delves into the dynamics of news media framing and its interaction with political trust in shaping the attitudes of the vaccinated towards unvaccinated populations during the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland. Through a survey experiment involving 455 vaccinated participants, we examine the impact of episodic and thematic news frames focusing on vaccination-related side effects. Our findings show the significant influence of episodic framing, particularly in mitigating the strength of people's opinions toward the unvaccinated. Specifically, individual-specific narratives seem to soften perceptions of outgroups. Conversely, thematic framing, which emphasizes general facts, did not yield a similar effect. Furthermore, our study establishes a relationship between political trust and the intensity of attitudes directed at the unvaccinated. Notably, political trust moderated the impact of episodic framing. The effect of framing was most pronounced under conditions of low political trust, whereas high political trust appeared to render news framing inconsequential in shaping opinions. Overall, this study provides insight into how citizens’ institutional trust moderates the effect of media news framing on attitudes towards health risks and non-compliant groups in society.how political trust and media framing can affect attitudes towards health risks and non-compliant groups in society.