Conservatives tend to view COVID-19 health guidelines, such as wearing a mask in public, as less impactful to others than their more liberal counterparts, according to a new study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research. The findings indicate that conservative individuals tend to believe that people are responsible for their own coronavirus-related outcomes.
“Given the current uncertain and partisan environment growing in the United States and across the globe, we are interested in understanding how this polarization can influence our behavior in the marketplace and other areas,” said study author Aylin Cakanlar, a PhD student at Stockholm University.
“When this public health crisis was politicized in the United States, we noticed that many health organizations were using messaging to highlight the impact of coronavirus behaviors on others (e.g., ‘Stay home, Save lives’) and were curious to understand whether there is any difference regarding the perception of these messages.”
Cakanlar and her colleagues examined the relationships between political ideology and coronavirus-prevention behaviors in four studies with more than 2,300 participants in total as well as an exploratory pilot study with 300 participants.
The researchers found that conservative participants were more likely to agree with statements such as “I believe people need to be responsible for themselves with regard to the coronavirus situation” and “Only I am responsible for my own outcomes when it comes to the coronavirus situation.” This partially explained why conservatives tended to view preventive behaviors as less impactful in stopping the spread of COVID-19 to others compared to liberals.
But there was little difference between liberals and conservatives regarding their perception that engaging in prevention behaviors would be impactful on the self.
“We demonstrate that conservatism is associated with the heightened belief that individuals are responsible for their own coronavirus-related outcomes, which is one of the reasons they perceive that their actions have little impact on preventing the spread of the virus to others,” the researchers said.
In addition, the researchers also found that conservatives were less willing than liberals to use a contact-tracing app after being told that the app could help others. However, there was no difference in willingness to use a contact-tracing app among participants who were told the app could help themselves stay healthy.
“An intervention framing actions in terms of impact on the self leads conservatives to be more inclined to follow COVID guidelines,” Cakanlar said.
“Even though individuals might believe that their actions do not impact others, engaging in prevention behaviors such as wearing a mask have important implications regarding the protection of other people,” she added.
The study — like all research — includes some caveats.
“All the studies were conducted in the United States during the presidency of Trump. Given that each country has its own procedure with regard to COVID-19, it is important for future studies to consider whether conservatives and liberals’ perceived impact of coronavirus prevention behaviors can change depending on the context,” Cakanlar explained.
The study, “Political Ideology and the Perceived Impact of Coronavirus Prevention Behaviors for the Self and Others“, was authored by Aylin Cakanlar, Remi Trudel, and Katherine White.