Association of Republican partisanship with US citizens’ mobility during the first period of the COVID crisis

Abstract

While Republican states have been criticized for their limited efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, it is important to consider that political orientation can modify human behaviour via complex effects that are still poorly understood. During the first period of the pandemic, we found that the association of Republican partisanship with US citizens' mobility varied depending on the nature of the exposure being considered. First, Republican partisanship was associated with increased mobility when the stringency of anti-COVID measures increased. Second, Republican partisanship was associated with decreased mobility when COVID-related deaths increased. Third, Republican partisanship was associated with increased mobility over time, i.e. as time went by, citizens living in Republican states were more mobile than those in Democratic states. These findings raise caution on any over-interpretation of the impact of polarization in US politics on COVID-related behaviour. They prompt consideration of persuasive tools that emphasize risk perception to promote social distancing in Republican states, rather than relying heavily on stringent anti-COVID interventions.

Partisanship and Covid-19 vaccination in the UK

“…In terms of ideology, most studies suggest that rightleaning individuals are less likely to vaccinate. In the US, Republicans are less likely to comply with government Covid-19 interventions, such as social distancing and mask wearing, and are more Covid-19 and vaccine sceptic [39][40][41][42][43] . Several reasons for this association have been explored.…”

Communities of Knowledge in Trouble

“…Although survey results could reflect "expressive responding," meaning that reported behaviors varied by partisan identity even though actual behaviors did not, substantial evidence suggests that the two communities were behaving as reported. Gollwitzer et al (2020) measured aggregate movement data from cell phones as a function of county vote share in the 2016 election and found the extent to which people traveled outside of the home during the early months of COVID, when stay-at-home mandates were in effect, varied by county-level partisanship even when controlling for numerous factors that could explain away the relationship (for similar results, see Allcott et al, 2020;Barbalat & Franck, 2022;Barrios & Hochberg, 2021;Camobreco & He, 2022;Grossman et al, 2020;Im et al, 2021;Kavanagh et al, 2021). Once vaccines became available, uptake also followed partisan patterns (Leonhardt, 2021), and mortality eventually reflected these differences (Bernet, 2022;Neelon et al, 2021;Sehgal et al, 2022;Wallace et al, 2022).…”

Quantifying investor narratives and their role during COVID‐19

“…A parallel line of research shows that political polarization in the USA has been increasing over the last three decades (Abramowitz & Saunders, 2008; Gentzkow et al, 2019; Mian et al, 2018). During the COVID‐19 pandemic, this polarization has manifested as, among other things, large differences between groups in mask‐wearing (Milosh et al, 2020), willingness to follow social distancing recommendations (Clinton et al, 2021), mobility (Barbalat & Franck, 2022), and even in stock market expectations (Cookson et al, 2020). We exploit this polarization of the political environment and politicization of financial markets to further our understanding of the broader effect of economic narratives and to examine the degree to which they reflect and are reflected in political identity and partisanship.…”