Capability-related political polarization in the COVID-19 pandemic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intell.2021.101580

Commentary

Two large longitudinal data sets (combined N = 5761) were used in this study to investigate capability-related political polarization in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The sample was used from February 2020 to July 2020, and more polarization was observed across the five waves of data collection, with increased capacity for emotional reactions, risk perceptions, and product purchase intentions (Study 1, N = 1267).

More liberal participants showed more negative emotional reactions and higher risk perceptions of COVID-19 than conservative participants. In addition, compared to conservatives, liberal participants interpreted quantitative information as indicating higher COVID-19 risk and were more likely to seek COVID-related news from liberals than from conservative news media.

Here, the researchers said, it is important to note that they also compared verbal and numerical cognitive abilities for independent ability to predict greater polarization.

Measures of numerical ability, such as objective computational ability, are often used to show ability-related polarization, but ideological differences were shown to be more pronounced in individuals with higher verbal ability.

Secondary analyses of risk perceptions in a nationally representative longitudinal dataset (Study 2, N = 4494; emotions and purchase intentions were not included in this dataset) confirmed these findings of competence-related polarization on cross-sectionally measured non-COVID policy attitudes The current study2

Study 2 documented for the first time the emergence of competence-related polarization over time, and both studies showed language proficiency measures as the strongest predictor of competence-related polarization.

Taken together, this suggests that polarization may be a function of the amount and application of language knowledge rather than the selective application of quantitative reasoning skills.