Polarizing effects of the coronavirus pandemic on system justification: A natural experiment involving New York City college students

IF 1.8 4区社会学 Q3 PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL

Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy Pub Date : 2024-07-24 DOI:10.1111/asap.12412

Eduardo J. Rivera Pichardo, Sushmeena A. Parihar, John T. Jost

{"title":"Polarizing effects of the coronavirus pandemic on system justification: A natural experiment involving New York City college students","authors":"Eduardo J. Rivera Pichardo, Sushmeena A. Parihar, John T. Jost","doi":"10.1111/asap.12412","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Previous research suggests that societal threats often increase ideological support for the social system, but the attitudinal effects of COVID‐19 seem to have varied greatly. Here we present the results of a natural experiment involving New York City college students (Total N = 1300 observations). One group (n = 835) completed questionnaires before the onset of COVID‐19, while another completed them afterward (n = 465). Shortly after COVID (within 3 months of the outbreak), students scored higher on general system justification than before; this effect was driven by political conservatives. At the same time, students scored lower on economic system justification and right‐wing authoritarianism after COVID (vs. before); these effects emerged later (4–5 months after the outbreak) and were driven by liberals. A subsample completed the same questionnaires both before and after COVID‐19 (n = 107), enabling us to investigate intraindividual change. The within‐participants analysis revealed that students exhibited an increase in general system justification and a decrease in economic system justification, which was driven by those who exhibited a liberal shift. Together, these results indicate that the ideological effects of the pandemic and the governmental response to it were complex and polarizing, with liberals and conservatives moving in opposite directions at different times and on different attitudinal dimensions.","PeriodicalId":46799,"journal":{"name":"Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy","volume":"15 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-24","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Analyses of Social Issues and Public Policy","FirstCategoryId":"90","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1111/asap.12412","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"PSYCHOLOGY, SOCIAL","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

Previous research suggests that societal threats often increase ideological support for the social system, but the attitudinal effects of COVID‐19 seem to have varied greatly. Here we present the results of a natural experiment involving New York City college students (Total N = 1300 observations). One group (n = 835) completed questionnaires before the onset of COVID‐19, while another completed them afterward (n = 465). Shortly after COVID (within 3 months of the outbreak), students scored higher on general system justification than before; this effect was driven by political conservatives. At the same time, students scored lower on economic system justification and right‐wing authoritarianism after COVID (vs. before); these effects emerged later (4–5 months after the outbreak) and were driven by liberals. A subsample completed the same questionnaires both before and after COVID‐19 (n = 107), enabling us to investigate intraindividual change. The within‐participants analysis revealed that students exhibited an increase in general system justification and a decrease in economic system justification, which was driven by those who exhibited a liberal shift. Together, these results indicate that the ideological effects of the pandemic and the governmental response to it were complex and polarizing, with liberals and conservatives moving in opposite directions at different times and on different attitudinal dimensions.

查看原文本刊更多论文

冠状病毒大流行对系统理由的极化效应：涉及纽约市大学生的自然实验

以往的研究表明，社会威胁往往会增加人们对社会制度的意识形态支持，但 COVID-19 的态度效应似乎差异很大。在此，我们介绍一项涉及纽约市大学生（总人数 = 1300 人）的自然实验结果。其中一组（n = 835）在 COVID-19 开始前完成问卷调查，另一组（n = 465）在 COVID-19 开始后完成问卷调查。在 COVID 发生后不久（疫情爆发后 3 个月内），学生在一般制度合理性方面的得分高于之前；这种效应是由政治保守派推动的。同时，在 COVID 后（与 COVID 前相比），学生在经济制度合理性和右翼专制主义方面的得分较低；这些影响出现的时间较晚（疫情爆发后 4-5 个月），并且是由自由主义者造成的。一个子样本在 COVID-19 之前和之后填写了相同的问卷（n = 107），使我们能够调查个体内部的变化。对参与者内部的分析表明，学生表现出一般制度合理性的增加和经济制度合理性的减少，而这是由表现出自由主义转变的学生所驱动的。总之，这些结果表明，大流行病的意识形态影响和政府的应对措施是复杂和两极化的，自由派和保守派在不同的时间和不同的态度维度上朝着相反的方向发展。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

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.