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As someone who studied political bias and why people reject scientific evidence for my dissertation, watching the US response & handling of Covid-19 has been deeply depressing. But it& #39;s also not entirely surprising.
Here& #39;s a few thoughts:
Here& #39;s a few thoughts:
There are lots of reasons why people reject scientific evidence...but a significant part of it does connect to ideology. People are motivated to maintain consistency between the values associated with their identity and the information they encounter.
For example, this study found that conservatives were even more likely to reject evidence regarding climate change when their conservative identity is made more salient in their mind. Identity is crucial for how we process information! #39;s_political_How_the_salience_of_one& #39;s_political_identity_changes_climate_change_beliefs_and_policy_support">https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263282235_It& #39;s_political_How_the_salience_of_one& #39;s_political_identity_changes_climate_change_beliefs_and_policy_support">https://www.researchgate.net/publicati...
Trump and other Republicans made Covid-19 a political issue and were generally dismissive of the virus early on. That stuck in the minds of many people. And many conservatives internalized being against Covid-19 as part of their political identity.
Thus, basic hygiene during a pandemic became politicized. Here you can see conservative people are significantly less likely to wear a mask, social distance, and take the virus seriously. https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2020/06/25/republicans-democrats-move-even-further-apart-in-coronavirus-concerns/">https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/...
Once this all becomes politicized, people& #39;s social networks (and echo chambers) can create a snowball effect. This study found that political attitudes became more extreme after a group discussion with like-minded people.
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-25344-009">https://psycnet.apa.org/record/20...
https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2016-25344-009">https://psycnet.apa.org/record/20...
We know that Democrats and Republicans trust and consume different news sources as well. This increases the polarization even further. https://www.journalism.org/2020/01/24/u-s-media-polarization-and-the-2020-election-a-nation-divided/">https://www.journalism.org/2020/01/2...
Finally, on a macro level, we saw rather poor leadership from the United States government (to say the least). Ideally, we should have locked down collectively and took the virus seriously together. Instead, we were quite divided and allowed the virus to continue to spread.
Are we taking the virus more seriously now that it has killed over 150,000 people? Kind of. Some Republicans are getting more concerned and Trump et al are also explicitly discussing the importance of mask wearing (finally). https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/some-republicans-have-gotten-more-concerned-about-covid-19/">https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...
But this is far from over. Some polls show that up to 50% of people are not willing or unsure if they want to get a Covid-19 vaccine once it becomes available. We still have a lot of work to do! https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/just-50-americans-plan-get-covid-19-vaccine-here-s-how-win-over-rest">https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020...
One helpful thing scientists can do is share their expertise within their networks! Also, be kind & patient to those who are willing to listen. There are many people you can reach!
Finally, here are some great #scicomm accounts to follow:
@FromTheLabBench @CA_AstroComm @Constababble @SciComm_Hub @scicomm_jc @Sarah_Mojarad @DrJenGunter @SarahMackAttack @hood_naturalist @aetiology @GoAstroMo @LizNeeley @iamscicomm
@FromTheLabBench @CA_AstroComm @Constababble @SciComm_Hub @scicomm_jc @Sarah_Mojarad @DrJenGunter @SarahMackAttack @hood_naturalist @aetiology @GoAstroMo @LizNeeley @iamscicomm
