Political Ideology and the Perceived Impact of Coronavirus Prevention Behaviors for the Self and Others

At the time of this writing, COVID-19 has spread rapidly worldwide. Even though the United States became the epicenter of the pandemic in April 2020, partisan differences have been observed in terms of willingness to engage in coronavirus-prevention behaviors. Across four studies and an exploratory pilot study, we demonstrate that conservatives differ from liberals in their perceptions of preventive behaviors. Conservatives view preventative actions as being less impactful on others, which is partially due to their beliefs regarding personal responsibility. Building on this, we also demonstrate the downstream benefits of using self-benefit versus other-benefit appeals to target conservatives versus liberals. In doing so, we show that communicating about self-benefits can minimize differences between conservatives and liberals in COVID-19 prevention-behavior compliance. This work contributes to the literature on political ideology and offers practical implications for policy makers and health organizations making every effort to encourage behaviors that prevent the spread of viral infections.