The Effect of Fox News on Health Behavior during COVID-19

IF 4.7 2区社会学 Q1 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Political Analysis Pub Date : 2023-07-31 DOI:10.1017/pan.2023.21

Elliott Ash, Sergio Galletta, Dominik Hangartner, Yotam Margalit, Matteo Pinna

引用次数: 1

Abstract

Abstract In the early weeks of the 2020 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Fox News Channel advanced a skeptical narrative that downplayed the risks posed by the virus. We find that this narrative had significant consequences: in localities with higher Fox News viewership—exogenous due to random variation in channel positioning—people were less likely to adopt behaviors geared toward social distancing (e.g., staying at home) and consumed fewer goods in preparation (e.g., cleaning products, hand sanitizers, and masks). Using original survey data, we find that the effect of Fox News came not merely from its long-standing distrustful stance toward science, but also due to program-specific content that minimized the COVID-19 threat. Taken together, our results demonstrate the significant impact that misinformation in media coverage can exert on viewers’ beliefs and behavior, even in high-stakes situations.

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福克斯新闻对COVID-19期间健康行为的影响

在2020年冠状病毒(COVID-19)大流行的最初几周，福克斯新闻频道提出了一种怀疑的叙述，淡化了该病毒带来的风险。我们发现，这种说法产生了显著的后果:在福克斯新闻收视率较高的地区(由于频道定位的随机变化而产生的外生因素)，人们不太可能采取与社会距离相关的行为(例如，呆在家里)，并且消费较少的准备商品(例如，清洁产品，洗手液和口罩)。利用原始调查数据，我们发现福克斯新闻的影响不仅来自其长期以来对科学的不信任立场，还源于将COVID-19威胁最小化的特定节目内容。综上所述，我们的研究结果表明，即使在高风险的情况下，媒体报道中的错误信息也会对观众的信念和行为产生重大影响。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Political Analysis POLITICAL SCIENCE-

CiteScore

8.80

自引率

3.70%

发文量

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