“Feeling the Pain of Others”: Examining the Framing Effects of Cancer Metaphors on Media Vicarious Traumatization

When exposed to traumatic events through media coverage, how do we emotionally appraise the situation? Although many factors contribute to our reasoning about media vicarious traumatization, in this article we focus on the role of metaphorical frames. This study uses an online survey experiment (<i>N</i> = 280 CHN adults) to investigate how irrational beliefs influence the effects of metaphorical frames on media vicarious traumatization, with a focus on the mediating role of transportation. The findings revealed that journey metaphors increased media vicarious traumatization more than war metaphors in conditions of low irrational beliefs, while no significant difference was observed in conditions of high irrational beliefs. The interaction between metaphorical frames and irrational beliefs indirectly affected media vicarious traumatization through transportation. These results improve our understanding of the framing effects of cancer metaphors and suggest practical strategies for media health coverage.