Why is right-wing media consumption associated with lower compliance with COVID-19 measures?

Abstract

Exposure to right-wing media has been shown to relate to lower perceived threat from COVID-19, lower compliance with prophylactic measures against it, and higher incidence of infection and death. What features of right-wing media messages account for these effects? In a preregistered cross-sectional study (N = 554) we test a model that differentiates perceived consequences of two CDC recommendations—washing hands and staying home—for basic human values. People who consumed more right-wing media perceived these behaviors as less beneficial for their personal security, for the well-being of close ones, and the well-being of society at large. Perceived consequences of following the CDC recommendations mediated the relationship between media consumption and compliance with recommendations. Implications for public health messaging are discussed.

Why Is Right-Wing Media Consumption Associated With Lower Compliance With COVID-19 Measures?

“…All study materials, data, and code can be found at https://osf.io/ft4q3. The data that support the findings of this study are openly available in Open Science Framework repository at http://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/ FT4Q3 (Ponizovskiy, Grigoryan, & Hofmann, 2020).…”

“…The two factors correlated positively ( r = .53, p < .001). See Online Supplement for details (Ponizovskiy et al, 2020).…”

“…The findings remained unchanged. These additional analyses are reported in the Online Supplement (Ponizovskiy et al, 2020).…”

Trust in science increases conservative support for social distancing

“…Supporting this possibility, geo-tracking data show that counties that support Trump and consume more conservative news sources tend to engage in less social distancing, even with stay-at-home orders in effect (Gollwitzer et al, 2020). Similarly, exposure to right-wing media decreases compliance with preventative behaviors such as hand-washing and staying home (Ponizovskiy et al, 2020), as does lower consumption of liberal media (Samore et al, 2020). Although not experimental, this emerging work suggests that lower rates of social distancing among conservatives might be driven, at least in part, by exposure to sources that breed mistrust in the science around COVID-19.…”

Discourse, Difference, and Divergence: Exploring Media Representations and Online Public Sentiments toward Marginalized Urban Communities in Jamaica during the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…Numerous studies have shown that media coverage during the pandemic has likely influenced the perceptions and attitudes of the public toward a wide range of issues, including food consumption, social distancing protocols, vaccines, travel plans, and other socio-economic activities (Chemli et al 2020;Gozzi et al 2020;Helm 2020). However, it has also been demonstrated that the information disseminated by media outlets does not always result in the greater good for society and may even exacerbate perverse situations related to the pandemic, such as questioning the value of adhering to social distancing and other recommended public health guidelines, thereby promoting the spread of the virus and potentially increasing the number of fatalities that have occurred (Ponizovskiy et al 2020).…”