Political Identity Over Personal Impact: Early U.S. 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 = 6,383) survey (Pew Research and Ipsos W64) of Americans was analyzed to investigate the effects of both political identity (i.e., Democrat or Republican) and personal impact (i.e., whether they suffered job or income loss) on individuals’ reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic. Results show that political identity and personal impact influenced the American public’s attitudes about and response to COVID-19. Consistent with prior research, 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. The difference between Democrats and Republican responses were consistent with their normative value differences and with the contemporary partisan messaging. 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 government responses. The dominating influence of political identity carried over into the bivariate relations among these self-reported attitudes and responses. In particular, the appraisal of government 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.

Inside the ‘black box’ of COVID-19 vaccination beliefs: Revealing the relative importance of public confidence and news consumption habits

“…Those who identified as Republicans were significantly less likely to hold positive COVID-19 vaccination beliefs such as believing in the value of vaccination to protect close others (e.g., family, friends, those who are vulnerable due to age, pre-existing conditions, etc.). This finding is in line with previous research that has identified party identification as a strong driver of COVID-19 prevention behavior ( Adolph et al, 2021 ; Bruine de Bruin, Saw and Goldman, 2020 ; Collins et al, 2021 ), but adds that party identification also influences the determinants of behavior, such as attitude structures as well as underlying beliefs. Given the importance of positive COVID-19 vaccination beliefs in determining attitudes, these findings are also consistent with previous research that has called for pro-vaccine messaging to promote vaccination, rather than messaging attempting to dispel vaccine myths ( Nyhan et al, 2014 ) (see Table 3 ).…”

I'm wearing a mask, but are they?: Perceptions of Self-Other Differences in COVID-19 Health Behaviors

“…Our investigations into individual difference yielded mixed results. Prior research implicated political preference as a particularly strong predictor of COVID-19-related PERCEPTIONS OF SELF-OTHER DIFFERENCES 21 health behavior, even overriding perceptions of risk and other salient factors (Collins et al, 2021). Those results were corroborated by this study.…”

“…Political Preference. Political preference is particularly notable as a predictor in this study due to its demonstrated associations both with false consensus (Blanchar et al, 2021) and willingness to engage in health and safety measures (Urminsky & Bergman, 2021;Collins et al, 2021). Furthermore, older (Biernat et al, 1997) and more recent (Rabinowitz et al, 2016;Stern et al, 2014) studies have connected political identity (liberal vs. conservative) to both false consensus and false uniqueness, with liberals displaying more false uniqueness and conservatives displaying more false consensus.…”

A Cross-Sectional Survey of Risky Travel and Leisure Behaviors During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“… 32 A nationwide study early in the pandemic also showed that political affiliation was related to threat perception and government response to the pandemic. 33 A study on Twitter found strong partisan reactions to the pandemic. 34 …”

“…32 A nationwide study early in the pandemic also showed that political affiliation was related to threat perception and government response to the pandemic. 33 A study on Twitter found strong partisan reactions to the pandemic. 34 In conclusion, several factors were related to resuming travel and leisure behaviors during the pandemic and prior to the availability of vaccines.…”