Politicization of COVID-19 health protection actions in the United States: longitudinal and international evidence

Release date: October 20, 2021

Available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256740

DESCRIPTION

In the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, conservative politicians and media in the United States have allegedly downplayed the risk of contracting COVID-19 and the effectiveness of recommended health behaviors.

Such health behavior theories suggest a perceived vulnerability to health threats, and the perceived effectiveness of recommended health protective behaviors determines the motivation to follow the recommendations. Thus, as a result of the pandemic and politics, we predicted that politically conservative Americans would be less likely to enact recommended health protective behaviors.

In this study, two longitudinal studies of U.S. residents showed that political conservatism was inversely associated with perceived health risks and adoption of health protective behaviors over time.

The influence of political orientation on health protective behaviors was mediated by perceived risk of infection, perceived severity of infection, and perceived effectiveness of health protective behaviors.

A global cross-national analysis showed that the effect was stronger in the United States, (N = 10923) highlighting the increased and overt politics of health behaviors in the international sample (N = 51986 than the total), the United States.