The partisan pandemic: Applying the reasoned action approach to understand the effects of politicizing a public health crisis

IF 1.8 4区社会学 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy Pub Date : 2024-01-03 DOI:10.1111/asap.12377

Shay Xuejing Yao, Dustin Carnahan, Nancy Rhodes

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

It is well-established that news outlets cater to audiences with particular political leanings and present news about important events, such as disease outbreaks, differently. However, the mechanisms through which selected media exposure influences behavior are not well established. Two surveys examined the roles of attitudes and social norms as pathways through which political predispositions (political ideology, partisanship) and news media choices influence health behavior decisions. Using early Covid-19 as a case study, both studies (a student sample [n = 315]; an adult sample [n = 518]) found liberal news viewing was related to positive attitudes and norms about health prevention and subsequently more enacted preventive behaviors among liberals but not conservatives. Interestingly, watching conservative news outlets was not associated with attitudes and norms about health prevention, nor was it related to behavior. Partisanship, but not political ideology, directly predicted participants’ preventive behavior. These findings suggest that party identification serves as a heuristic for conservatives’ and Republicans’ attitudes and behavior, which are not influenced by news media choice. Partisan differences in media preferences influenced the adoption of preventive behavior via the reasoned action pathways for Democrats but not Republicans, suggesting distinct messaging strategies for health communication based on political leaning.

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党派大流行：运用合理行动法了解公共卫生危机政治化的影响

众所周知，新闻机构会迎合具有特定政治倾向的受众，并以不同的方式报道重要事件（如疾病爆发）。然而，选择性媒体接触影响行为的机制并没有得到很好的证实。有两项调查研究了态度和社会规范作为政治倾向（政治意识形态、党派倾向）和新闻媒体选择影响健康行为决策的途径所起的作用。两项研究（学生样本[n = 315]；成人样本[n = 518]）均以早期 Covid-19 为案例，发现自由派新闻观看与健康预防的积极态度和规范有关，随后自由派（而非保守派）会采取更多预防行为。有趣的是，观看保守派新闻与健康预防的态度和规范无关，也与行为无关。党派而非政治意识形态能直接预测参与者的预防行为。这些研究结果表明，党派认同是保守派和共和党人态度和行为的启发式因素，并不受新闻媒体选择的影响。媒体偏好的党派差异影响了民主党人通过合理行动途径采取预防行为，而不是共和党人，这表明基于政治倾向的健康传播信息策略是不同的。

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

Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy Multiple-

CiteScore

2.80

自引率

6.70%

发文量

期刊介绍： Recent articles in ASAP have examined social psychological methods in the study of economic and social justice including ageism, heterosexism, racism, sexism, status quo bias and other forms of discrimination, social problems such as climate change, extremism, homelessness, inter-group conflict, natural disasters, poverty, and terrorism, and social ideals such as democracy, empowerment, equality, health, and trust.