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Elite party cues increase vaccination intentions among Republicans
Name
pnas.2106559118.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
846.41 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
d37cfdbe8510f2788ad7591b601df0b8
Author(s)
Pink, Sophia L
Chu, James
Druckman, James N
Rand, David G
Willer, Robb
Date Issued
2021
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Citation
Pink, Sophia L, Chu, James, Druckman, James N, Rand, David G and Willer, Robb. 2021. "Elite party cues increase vaccination intentions among Republicans." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 118 (32).
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic requires motivating the vast majority of Americans to get vaccinated. However, vaccination rates have become politically polarized, and a substantial proportion of Republicans have remained vaccine hesitant for months. Here, we explore how endorsements by party elites affect Republicans’ COVID-19 vaccination intentions and attitudes. In a preregistered survey experiment (n = 1,480), we varied whether self-identified Republicans saw endorsements of the vaccine from prominent Republicans (including video of a speech by former President Donald Trump), from the Democratic Party (including video of a speech by President Joseph Biden), or a neutral control condition including no endorsements. Unvaccinated Republicans who were exposed to the Republican elite endorsement reported 7.0% higher vaccination intentions than those who viewed the Democratic elite endorsement and 5.7% higher than those in the neutral control condition. These effects were statistically mediated by participants’ reports of how much they thought Republican politicians would want them to get vaccinated. We also found evidence of backlash effects against Democratic elites: Republicans who viewed the Democratic elite endorsement reported they would be significantly less likely to encourage others to vaccinate and had more negative attitudes toward the vaccine, compared with those who viewed the Republican elite endorsement or the neutral control. These results demonstrate the relative advantage of cues from Republican elites—and the risks of messaging from Democrats currently in power—for promoting vaccination among the largest vaccine-hesitant subgroup in the United States.
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DOI of Published Version
10.1073/PNAS.2106559118
