Beliefs about COVID-19 in Canada, the U.K., and the U.S.A.: A novel test of political polarization and motivated reasoning
Name
01461672211023652.pdf
Size
357.72 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4d1a99a2134b6d143f8f27c255daa5e1
Author(s)
Pennycook, Gordon
McPhetres, Jonathon
Bago, Bence
Rand, David Gertler
Date Issued
June 2021
Journal
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
Publisher
Center for Open Science
Citation
Pennycook, Gordon et al. "Beliefs About COVID-19 in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States: A Novel Test of Political Polarization and Motivated Reasoning." Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin (June 2021): 10.1177/01461672211023652.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
What are the psychological consequences of the increasingly politicized nature of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States relative to similar Western countries? In a two-wave study completed early (March) and later (December) in the pandemic, we found that polarization was greater in the U.S. (N=1,339) than in Canada (N=644) and the U.K. (N=1,283). Political conservatism in the U.S. was strongly associated with engaging in weaker mitigation behaviors, lower COVID-19 risk perceptions, greater misperceptions, and stronger vaccination hesitancy. Although there was some evidence that cognitive sophistication was associated with increased polarization in the U.S. in December (but not March), cognitive sophistication was nonetheless consistently negatively correlated with misperceptions and vaccination hesitancy across time, countries, and party lines. Furthermore, COVID-19 skepticism in the U.S. was strongly correlated with distrust in liberal-leaning mainstream news outlets and trust in conservative-leaning news outlets, suggesting that polarization may be driven by differences in information environments.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1177/01461672211023652
