Polarization and public health: Partisan differences in social distancing during the coronavirus pandemic

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Allcott, Hunt; Boxell, Levi; Conway, Jacob; Gentzkow, Matthew; Thaler, Michael; Yang, David
• 署名单位: Microsoft; New York University; National Bureau of Economic Research; Stanford University; Harvard University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF PUBLIC ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0047-2727
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104254
• 发表日期: 2020
• 关键词: coronavirus; political polarization; Media trust; Health behaviors

摘要

We study partisan differences in Americans' response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Political leaders and media outlets on the right and left have sent divergent messages about the severity of the crisis, which could impact the extent to which Republicans and Democrats engage in social distancing and other efforts to reduce disease transmission. We develop a simple model of a pandemic response with heterogeneous agents that clarifies the causes and consequences of heterogeneous responses. We use location data froma large sample of smartphones to showthat areaswithmore Republicans engaged in less social distancing, controlling for other factors including public policies, population density, and local COVID cases and deaths. We then present new survey evidence of significant gaps at the individual level between Republicans and Democrats in self-reported social distancing, beliefs about personal COVID risk, and beliefs about the future severity of the pandemic. (c) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.