Political Identity, Risk Perception, and Sport Participation: Conditional Process Analysis of Golfers’ Revisit Intent During the COVID Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has been highly politicized in the US. Th is study explored the effect of individuals’ political orientation on the relationship between their risk assessments of COVID-19 and intentions to revisit the golf course. A first-stage moderated mediation model consisting of general risk awareness of COVID-19, perceived risk of playing golf, and revisit intention was introduced to specify when and how political orientation influences an individual’s decision to play golf again. Recreational golfers (N = 199) from a survey panel took part in the study, and results showed that risk awareness of COVID-19 increases the perceived risk of playing golf while suppressing one’s intention to revisit the golf course during the pandemic. However, political orientation moderated the suppressant effect of risk awareness on revisit intent in that only Democrats showed negative effect on revisit intent while Republicans did not show any significant relationship. Findings are discussed in the context of a dual process model of political identity, and the implications for practice as well as future research are presented.