Graduation Year

2026

Date of Submission

12-2025

Document Type

Campus Only Senior Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Psychology

Reader 1

Daniel A. Krauss

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Terms of Use for work posted in Scholarship@Claremont.

Abstract

This research explores the impact of media polarization and presentation of gun violence on individual’s mortality salience and gun policy opinions. It examines the relationship through vignettes of different types of gun violence framed as stories from news outlets. Participants, after reading the vignette, are asked to self-report their levels of anxiety and mortality salience and gun policy opinions. It is hypothesized that mortality salience will be affected differently by certain vignettes. The one depicting school shootings should cause participants to report higher agreement with gun policy reforms. Whether these reforms will be in support of more strict gun control policies or less strict depends on the views held by the participant prior to the study. Further, it is hypothesized that when a vignette is presented by an ideologically opposing source, participants will view the news source as less credible and report lower levels of mortality salience. Finally, the ideological framing of the news source will moderate mortality salience effects. For example, conservatives exposed to conservative framing will show decreased support for gun control, while liberals exposed to liberal framing will show increased support. These results should lead to a greater understanding of the impact of media framing on the general public’s opinions.

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