Political identity over personal impact: Early US reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Research suggests political identity has strong influence over individuals’ attitudes and beliefs, which in turn can affect their behavior. Likewise, firsthand experience with an issue can also affect attitudes and beliefs. A large (N = 10,362) survey (Pew Research and Ipsos W64) of Americans was analyzed to investigate the effects of both political identity and personal impact on individuals’ reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results show that political identity (i.e., Democrat or Republican) and personal impact (i.e., personally affected or not) influenced different aspects of the American public’s reaction to COVID-19. Political identity exerted a strong influence on self-reports of emotional distress, threat perception, discomfort with exposure, support for restrictions, and perception of under/overreaction by individuals and institutions. Personal impact exerted a comparatively weaker influence on reported emotional distress and threat perception. Both factors had a weak influence on appraisal of individual and organizational and community responses. The dominating influence of political identity carried over into the bivariate relations among these responses. In particular, the appraisal of organizational response divided along party lines, tied to opposing views of whether there has been over- or under-reaction to the pandemic. The dominance of political identity has important implications for crisis management and reflects the influence of normative value differences between the parties, partisan messaging on the pandemic, and polarization in American politics.

Emotional responses to a global stressor: Average patterns and individual differences

“…Additionally, social class may influence whether individuals have the resources necessary to respond to major stressors, and in turn, maintain emotional well-being ( Murrell & Norris, 1983 ). In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, racial and ethnic identity and political affiliation may also impact resilience, given the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on racial and ethnic minority individuals and communities ( Millett et al, 2020 ; Tessler et al, 2020 ) and different responses to the pandemic across political parties ( Collins et al, 2020 ).…”

Political Preferences of Muhammadiyah Residents as Minority Muslims in the 2018 Bali Governor Election

“…Identity politics is the politics in which individuals engage when they organize around, and define, their experiences, political concerns, and aspirations in terms of the identitygroup good [2]. When it comes to identity politics, political theory focuses on analytic, normative, and political problems, such as how governments should approach identity groups and/or claims made on their behalf [3]. Historically, identity politics sprang from experiences of identity-based oppression: disparities in resources and opportunities that people encounter as members of specific identity groups [16].…”

“…Freely political behavior is defined as the overall political behavior of political actors and citizens in their concrete manifestations that have a mutual relationship with culture. Citizens' attitudes, responses in assessing political objects and events as well as their activities against the current political system This is also strongly influenced by the behavioral preferences of the governing political elite as well as the socio-cultural life of the community [3]. Political acts that are represented in a person's political ideals are a highly important influence in directing how they respond to a circumstance [2].…”

Emotional Responses to a Global Stressor: Average Patterns and Individual Differences

“…Black communities have borne a disproportionate impact of COVID-19 (Millett et al, 2020) while Asian Americans have faced increased discrimination (Tessler et al, 2020, suggesting that racial and ethnic identities and the societal contexts in which those identities are embedded may also influence trajectories of resilience. Finally, survey data collected in the first month of the pandemic suggests that political identity impacted emotional responses, with Democrats reporting more emotional distress than Republicans (Collins et al, 2020). To provide a strong test of the effects of racial and ethnic identity and political affiliation on resilience trajectories, Sample A was recruited to be diverse with respect to racial and ethnic identity and Sample B was recruited to be diverse with respect to political affiliation.…”