Who Thinks COVID-19 is not a Crisis? Need for Cognition and Political Ideology Influence Perceptions of the Severity of COVID-19

Syed Imran Ali Meerza, Kathleen R. Brooks, Christopher Gustafson and Amalia Yiannaka

No 5xvaz, OSF Preprints from Center for Open Science

Abstract: The main objective of this study is to identify the role of the need for cognition (NFC) and political ideology in shaping perceptions of the severity of the COVID-19 pandemic using survey data collected from 1,223 individuals in the United States. Our results suggest that participants with a high NFC are more likely to perceive COVID-19 as a crisis than respondents with a low NFC. Moreover, empirical results indicate that conservatism is related to perceiving the COVID-19 pandemic as less severe. Specifically, individuals on the ‘right’ of the political spectrum (i.e., conservative) were less likely to perceive the COVID-19 pandemic as a crisis than individuals on the ‘left’ of the political spectrum (i.e., liberal). Overall, study findings show the psychological and political roots of individual differences in perceptions of the severity of the pandemic.

Date: 2023-02-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-pol
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Working Paper: Who Thinks COVID-19 is not a Crisis? Need for Cognition and Political Ideology Influence Perceptions of the Severity of COVID-19 (2023)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:osf:osfxxx:5xvaz

DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/5xvaz

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