Getting Conservatives and Liberals to Agree on the COVID-19 Threat

Abstract

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, political ideology has been perhaps the strongest predictor of consumers' perceptions of the coronavirus's threat. This article demonstrates that differences between conservatives' and liberals' responses to COVID-19 are mitigated when people perceive the virus itself to have agency. We propose that conservatives are generally more sensitive to threats that are relatively high (vs. low) in agency. Consequently, we find that greater perceived agency of the coronavirus increases its perceived threat among conservatives but not liberals, and that this interaction is driven by differences in the tendency to attribute responsibility to agential entities. We also explore the effect of these malleable threat perceptions on downstream consequences related to the pandemic, including planned in-person consumption frequency. This research offers public health officials, policymakers, and firms insight into how to communicate more effectively about the pandemic, and contributes theoretically to the literature on political ideology and threat sensitivity.

Resistance to Persuasion: Examining the Influence of Political Ideology on COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake Hesitancy

“…Recent studies indicate that individuals' political ideology strongly influences their perceptions and acceptance of risk (Cakanlar et al,. 2020;Nowlan and Zane, 2020;Roozenbeek et al, 2020;Van der Linden et al, 2020), making it of particular importance in determining vaccine attitudes. To further test the efficacy of inoculation messaging, a second study was designed to examine the antecedents shown to influence consumer attitudes and behaviors in this context (political ideology, trust in the message source and attitude certainty).…”

“…In their examination of the role of political ideology in consumer reaction to multiple consumption regulations (e-cigarettes, food warning labels, and using mobile phones while driving), Irmack and others (2020) found that the position held by the political party that subjects support affects how they cognitively and affectively process information presented to them about an issue. Moreover, numerous studies demonstrate that political ideology is a key contributor to individuals' attitudes about the level of threat attributed to the COVID-19 virus (Cakanlar et al, 2020;Kelly et al, 2020;Nowlan and Zane 2020;Roozenbeek et al, 2020;Van der Linden et al, 2020), as well as the efficacy of the vaccine (Bechler and Tormala, 2020;Chou and Budenz, 2020;Tyson et al, 2020).…”

“…For example, Baumgaertner et al (2018) found that political ideology indirectly influenced parents' attitudes about vaccinating their children through their perceived trust in the health-related information sources. Moreover, Motta et al (2021) and Nowlan and Zane (2020) demonstrated that the source of COVID-19 messaging was critical in determining perceived threat and attitude change related to the COVID-19 virus. Therefore, COVID-19 pro-vaccination messaging attributed to a source that triggers reactance based on the audience's political viewpoint is less likely be less effective; and based on the studies outlined above, suggests another hypothesis for this study:…”

Determining the Association Between COVID-19 Cases and Congressional District Affiliation in the United States

“…Although, it is hard to specify who exactly consumed these types of media, it can be inferred that right leaning individuals consumed right leaning media. (Motta et al 2020).¹⁰ As mentioned previously, right leaning districts did not follow public health measures, such as social distancing, as well as left leaning districts, which could have led to them having a higher number of COVID-19 cases (Gollwitzer et al 2020).¹ Right leaning individuals are less likely to wear masks because they don't feel as threatened by the virus itself (Nowlan et al 2020).¹¹ This could explain why there is less of a response from right leaning districts to those specific dates. The data, taken together, suggests that right leaning districts had a higher number of cases throughout the pandemic, and they also responded to policies and significant days of the pandemic much less.…”

Balancing the Freedom–Security Trade-Off During Crises and Disasters

“…In fact, high levels of threat perception can minimize political differences in policy support between liberals and conservatives; the desire for security can override the power of partisanship (Davis & Silver, 2004;Nowlan & Zane, 2021).…”