Do framing messages increase support for earthquake legislation?

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to understand how framing messages about earthquake risk affect judgements about legislation requiring the strengthening of earthquake-prone buildings. Design/methodology/approach - Scenarios described the legislation with a general population sample (n = 271). Two types of framing effects were examined in a 2 (valence frame: positive or negative or positive) by 2 (numerical format frame: frequency/number or percentage) experimental design. Findings - Scenarios reporting the number of earthquake-prone buildings (negative frequency format) increased support for the earthquake-strengthening legislation more than the same message framed positively (frequency number of resilient building) or as a percentage. Demographic variables such as previous earthquake experience and gender interacted with the framing effects, and other variables also predicted support for the legislation were identified. Research limitations/implications - These results have direct implications for the use of framing effects messages in communications about earthquake risk and the wider domain. Originality/value - This is the first study to show that the way the risk is framed affects citizens' judgement of the value of earthquake legislation.