Doubt Versus Trust: Framing Effects of the News About the 2018 Trump‒Kim Jong Un Summit in Singapore on American College Students

Abstract

This article examines the effects of trust versus doubt news frames during the 2018 denuclearization summit between the United States and North Korea in June 2018, an issue that is characterized by negative media coverage about North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un. An experimental study conducted in 2018 at a public university in the United States found that participants (N = 297) showed a more negative attitude toward North Korea if they read an article framed as doubt compared with an article framed as trust. Exposure to the doubt-framed article was significantly related to participants’ strong support for maintaining sanctions against North Korea and weak support for deepening diplomatic ties with the country. The analysis also reveals that low “need to evaluate” individuals were more affected by the doubt-framed news about North Korea than the trust-framed news.