  It has been debated whether protective measurement implies the reality of the
wave function. In this paper, I present a new analysis of the relationship
between protective measurements and the reality of the wave function. First, I
briefly introduce protective measurements and the ontological models framework
for them. Second, I give a simple proof of Hardy's theorem in terms of
protective measurements. Third, I analyze two suggested $\psi$-epistemic models
of a protective measurement. It is shown that although these models can explain
the appearance of expectation values of observables in a single measurement,
their predictions about the variance of the result of a non-ideal protective
measurement are different from those of quantum mechanics. Finally, I argue
that under an auxiliary finiteness assumption about the dynamics of the ontic
state, protective measurement implies the reality of the wave function in the
ontological models framework.
