Why are Conservatives Less Concerned about the Coronavirus (COVID-19) than Liberals? Comparing Political, Experiential, and Partisan Messaging Explanations

Abstract

Given that much research suggests conservatives are more sensitive to disease threat, it is curious that conservatives in the U.S. seem less concerned than liberals with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Across three studies totaling nearly 1,000 participants, we evaluated two different potential reasons why conservatives are less concerned: Experiential (conservatives are less directly affected by the outbreak than liberals) versus Political (conservatives hold COVID-specific political beliefs that make them motivated to reduce their concern). All three studies consistently showed evidence that motivated political (and not experiential) reasons more strongly underlie conservatives’ lack of concern for COVID-19. Whereas experience with (e.g., knowing people with symptoms) and impacts of (e.g., financial hardships resulting from COVID-19) the disease did not consistently mediate the conservatism-COVID concern relationship, COVID-specific Political Beliefs (e.g., opposition to government restrictions) did consistently mediate the key relationship. Pooled analyses further suggested that, while it did not strongly mediate the relationship, experience nonetheless provided a boundary condition for the conservatismperceived threat relationship: As experience/impacts with COVID-19 increased, ideology played less of a role in predicting perceived threat. Taken together, this evidence suggests that (1) conservatives’ lack of concern with the pandemic is not based in direct experience but rather motivated by desired political outcomes. However, it further suggests that (2) as experiences and impact of COVID-19 grow, the ideological effect on COVID-19 threat diminishes. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of this set of findings.

Mentality and behavior in COVID-19 emergency status in Japan: Influence of personality, morality and ideology

“…Results replicated those of previous studies, that is, citizens suffered from mental burden due to COVID-19 [4,6], although the number of infections was comparatively small in Japan [46]. Furthermore, results indicated that concerns, mental health status, and preventive behaviors to COVID-19 are associated with personality, morality, ideology, and demographic characteristics that have been studied independently [19] and [18] for personality; [25] and [24] for morality; [28] and [26] for ideology; [4,5] for demography.…”

Dual Evolutionary Foundations of Political Ideology Predict Divergent Responses to COVID-19

“…In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a popular view has gained ground that liberals are in favour of lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus while conservatives are focused on resuming activities to prevent an economic downturn. This is supported by studies showing an association between conservative political ideology and reduced support for and compliance with pandemic prevention measures, at both the individual [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11] and population [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] level. However, such a conclusion appears inconsistent with the well-known link between conservatism and increased threat-sensitivity (including pathogen aversion) 17,18 .…”

“…Prediction 1: Economic progressives will display cooperative, empathic attitudes and policy preferences regarding ; social conservatives will display conformist, norm-enforcing attitudes and policy preferences regarding COVID-19. Recent studies taking a unidimensional view of ideology have found that the political left displayed more empathy-related 65,66 attitudes and behaviours like physical distancing [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] , but it is an open question whether economic or social progressives are driving this. Studies looking at unidimensional ideology also found that the political left has been more compliant with prevention measures and more in favour of strict policy to deal with the pandemic [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] , with only one study finding that political conservatism predicted stricter preferences (on border control) 5 .…”

Is Nationalism Rising in Times of the COVID-19 Pandemic? Individual-Level Evidence from the United States

“…Researchers note that the pandemic has become a highly politicizing issue in a number of countries, such as the US [9]. Specifically, people have revealed an ideological divide in perceptions of the pandemic: conservatives in the US are less concerned about the virus than those with other ideologies [17]. 1 A recent Quinnipiac University national poll revealed that only 35% of conservatives (compared to 68% of liberals and 57% of moderates) were concerned that they or someone they know will be infected with the coronavirus [46].…”

“…To avoid some undesired political outcomes (for example, government intervention), conservatives tended to downplay the threat of the virus. See[17].…”