Partisanship and public opinion of COVID-19: does emphasizing Trump and his administration's response to the pandemic affect public opinion about the coronavirus?

Does emphasizing the pandemic as a partisan issue polarize factual beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions concerning the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, we conducted a preregistered survey experiment with a "questions as treatment" design in late March 2020 wi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of elections, public opinion and parties public opinion and parties, 2021-05, Vol.31 (S1), p.145-154
Main Authors: Spälti, Anna Katharina, Lyons, Benjamin, Mérola, Vittorio, Reifler, Jason, Stedtnitz, Christine, Stoeckel, Florian, Szewach, Paula
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Attitudes
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Pandemics
Partisanship
Polls & surveys
Presidents
Public opinion
Respondents
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
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Summary:Does emphasizing the pandemic as a partisan issue polarize factual beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions concerning the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 pandemic? To answer this question, we conducted a preregistered survey experiment with a "questions as treatment" design in late March 2020 with 1587 U.S. respondents recruited via Prime Panel. Respondents were randomly assigned to answer several questions about then-president Donald J. Trump and the coronavirus (including receiving an information cue by evaluating one of Trump's tweets) either at the beginning of the survey (treated condition) or at the end of the survey (control condition). Receiving these questions at the beginning of the survey had no direct effect on COVID-19 factual beliefs, attitudes, and behavioral intentions.
ISSN:1745-7289
1745-7297
DOI:10.1080/17457289.2021.1924749