Partisan Elite Messaging and Emotion in Public Health Crises

• In Event: Health and Public Opinion

Abstract

The polarized nature of the COVID-19 pandemic indicates that affective responses to seemingly objective threats can quickly become bifurcated along partisan lines. To what extent do partisan cues shape emotional reactions and attitudes toward nascent health threats? I argue that partisan motivated reasoning and biased perceptions of source credibility give rise to a public predisposed to polarization in their affective and attitudinal responses to threats. I leverage observational and experimental data to test this prediction. In the first part of the paper, I draw on representative survey data from the first year of the pandemic and find partisanship to be strongly associated with anxiety development and COVID policy support. I subsequently report findings from a survey experiment in which American adults were exposed to cues from either a partisan elite or a medical source about an emerging infectious disease outbreak. Here, I find that those exposed to copartisan appeals are most moved by this messaging, with stronger affective reactions and increased support for public health measures. A follow-up experiment tests the limits of these cues, gauging the effect of partisan elite cues on emotion and attitudes toward an apolitical, non-health threat.

Authors

• Nicholas Charles Damico, Syracuse University

• Shana Kushner Gadarian, Syracuse University