There’s a controversial and unsettled debate in Communication Studies and Psychology about the utility of existential risk framing. This debate has been hashed out for years in the climate change space. Roughly, the two sides are:Pro x-risk framing: (1) It’s true, so rhetors should state the truth; (2) fear is motivating; (3) if our policy goal is to mitigate x-risk, focusing on non-existential risks pushes the public toward policy solutions that don’t solve those existential risks.Anti x-risk f