The politicized pandemic: Ideological polarization and the behavioral response to COVID-19

Arbeitspapier

We investigate the relationship between political attitudes and prosociality in a survey of a representative sample of the U.S. population during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that an experimental measure of prosociality correlates positively with adherence to protective behaviors. Liberal political ideology predicts higher levels of protective behavior than conservative ideology, independently of the differences in prosociality across the two groups. Differences between liberals and conservatives are up to 4.4 times smaller in their behavior than in judging the government's crisis management. This result suggests that U.S. Americans are more polarized on ideological than behavioral grounds.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: Kiel Working Paper ; No. 2207

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Microeconomic Behavior: Underlying Principles ; Political Processes: Rent-seeking, Lobbying, Elections, Legislatures, and Voting Behavior ; Micro-Based Behavioral Economics: Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making‡ ; Health Behavior ; Health: Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health ; Structure, Scope, and Performance of Government ; Crisis Management
• Subject: Polarization ; Ideology ; Trust in politicians ; COVID-19 ; Prosociality ; Health behavior ; Worries

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Grimalda, Gianluca ; Murtin, Fabrice ; Pipke, David ; Putterman, Louis G. ; Sutter, Matthias
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Kiel Institute for the World Economy (IfW Kiel)
• (where): Kiel
• (when): 2022

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/250080
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:43 AM CET