Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name:  Gianluca Grimalda
Author-Name-First: Gianluca
Author-Name-Last: Grimalda
Author-Email: gianluca.grimalda@ifw-kiel.de
Author-Workplace-Name: Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Author-Name:  Fabrice Murtin
Author-Name-First: Fabrice
Author-Name-Last: Murtin
Author-Email: fabrice.murtin@oecd.org
Author-Workplace-Name: OECD Statistics and Data Directorate
Author-Name:  David Pipke
Author-Name-First: David
Author-Name-Last: Pipke
Author-Email: david.pipke@ifw-kiel.de
Author-Workplace-Name: Kiel Institute for the World Economy
Author-Name:  Louis Putterman
Author-Name-First: Louis
Author-Name-Last: Putterman
Author-Email: louis_putterman@brown.edu
Author-Workplace-Name: Brown University
Author-Name:  Matthias Sutter
Author-Name-First: Matthias
Author-Name-Last: Sutter
Author-Email: matthias.sutter@coll.mpg.de
Author-Workplace-Name: Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, University of Cologne, University of Innsbruck, and IZA

Title:   The Politicized Pandemic: Ideological Polarization and the Behavioral Response to COVID-19 
Abstract: We investigate the relationship between political attitudes and prosociality in a survey of a representative sample of the U.S. population during the first summer of the COVID-19 pandemic. We find that an experimental measure of prosociality correlates positively with adherence to protective behaviors. Liberal political ideology predicts higher levels of protective behavior than conservative ideology, independently of the differences in prosociality across the two groups. Differences between liberals and conservatives are up to 4.4 times smaller in their behavior than in judging the government’s crisis management. This result suggests that U.S. Americans are more polarized on ideological than behavioral grounds. 
Length: 51 pages
Classification-JEL: D01, D72, D91, I12, I18, H11, H12 
Keywords: Polarization, Ideology, Trust in politicians, COVID-19, Prosociality, Health behavior, Worries 

Creation-Date:  2022-01
File-URL: https://www.econtribute.de/RePEc/ajk/ajkdps/ECONtribute_138_2022.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
File-Function: First version, 2022
Number: 138
Handle: RePEc:ajk:ajkdps:138