How much do politics affect a person's willingness to social distance amid the pandemic? Quite a bit, according to a study published in Science Advances Dec. 11.
Researchers analyzed the daily reported activities from 1.1 million U.S. adults between April and September. Compared to independents, Democrats were overall 13.1 percent less likely to engage in social activities while Republicans were 27.8 percent more likely.
Early on in April, there were few partisan differences and they began to emerge overtime. Engagement in social activities increased across both political parties as the country buried deeper into the pandemic. The increase was greatest among Republicans, who increased their number of social activities by 1.24 or a 75 percent increase compared to a .86 or 60 percent increase among independents. Democrats showed a .63 or 47 percent increase in social activities.
"Our results point to an unequivocal conclusion: partisanship is a far more important determinant of an individual's response to the COVID-19 pandemic than the impact of COVID-19 in that individual's local community," the study said. Changes in political messaging, especially at the national level, may help bridge the identified partisan differences, according to researchers.
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