IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/igg/jhisi0/v19y2024i1p1-31.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Factors Affect People's Opinions Toward COVID-19 and Contact Tracing Apps in the United States: A Random Sample Survey

Author

Listed:
  • Haijing Hao

    (Bentley University, USA)

  • Garrett Smith

    (Brigham Young University, USA)

  • Yunan Chen

    (University of California, Irvine, USA)

  • Mainack Mondal

    (Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, India)

  • Po-Shen Loh

    (Carnegie Mellon University, USA)

  • Staci B. Smith

    (University of Mississippi, USA)

  • Xinru Page

    (Brigham Young University, USA)

Abstract

In January 2022, at the peak of COVID-19 in the United States, we administered an online survey on Prolific Academic to 302 participants in the United States, a nationally demographic representative sample based on age, gender, and race. To explore differences in attitudes and opinions among demographic subgroups, we employed several statistical tests, including Mann Whitney U tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and chi-squared tests. Our survey results suggest that Americans' opinions towards the COVID-19 pandemic are severely divided by their political views. There is strong partisan polarization in almost every COVID-19 related question in our survey. Our findings suggest that policy makers need to consider partisan polarization and the enormous impact it can have on people's attitudes and behaviors during public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health experts need to consider how to convey scientific knowledge about a pandemic without allowing political views to dominate medical conversation.

Suggested Citation

  • Haijing Hao & Garrett Smith & Yunan Chen & Mainack Mondal & Po-Shen Loh & Staci B. Smith & Xinru Page, 2024. "What Factors Affect People's Opinions Toward COVID-19 and Contact Tracing Apps in the United States: A Random Sample Survey," International Journal of Healthcare Information Systems and Informatics (IJHISI), IGI Global, vol. 19(1), pages 1-31, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:igg:jhisi0:v:19:y:2024:i:1:p:1-31
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://services.igi-global.com/resolvedoi/resolve.aspx?doi=10.4018/IJHISI.353901
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anton Gollwitzer & Cameron Martel & William J. Brady & Philip Pärnamets & Isaac G. Freedman & Eric D. Knowles & Jay J. Van Bavel, 2020. "Partisan differences in physical distancing are linked to health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(11), pages 1186-1197, November.
    2. Samrat Gupta & Gaurav Jain & Amit Anand Tiwari, 2023. "Polarised social media discourse during COVID-19 pandemic: evidence from YouTube," Behaviour and Information Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 227-248, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wood, Reed M. & Juanchich, Marie & Ramirez, Mark & Zhang, Shenghao, 2023. "Promoting COVID-19 vaccine confidence through public responses to misinformation: The joint influence of message source and message content," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 324(C).
    2. Lucia Freira & Marco Sartorio & Cynthia Boruchowicz & Florencia Lopez Boo & Joaquin Navajas, 2021. "The interplay between partisanship, forecasted COVID-19 deaths, and support for preventive policies," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    3. Emiliano Ceccarelli & Giada Minelli & Viviana Egidi & Giovanna Jona Lasinio, 2023. "Assessment of Excess Mortality in Italy in 2020–2021 as a Function of Selected Macro-Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(4), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Martin Bodenstein & Giancarlo Corsetti & Luca Guerrieri, 2022. "Social distancing and supply disruptions in a pandemic," Quantitative Economics, Econometric Society, vol. 13(2), pages 681-721, May.
    5. Martin-Gutierrez, Samuel & Losada, Juan C. & Benito, Rosa M., 2023. "Multipolar social systems: Measuring polarization beyond dichotomous contexts," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    6. James N. Druckman, 2022. "Threats to Science: Politicization, Misinformation, and Inequalities," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 700(1), pages 8-24, March.
    7. Bierman, Alex & Upenieks, Laura & Glavin, Paul & Schieman, Scott, 2021. "Accumulation of economic hardship and health during the COVID-19 pandemic: Social causation or selection?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 275(C).
    8. Hensel, Lukas & Witte, Marc & Caria, A. Stefano & Fetzer, Thiemo & Fiorin, Stefano & Götz, Friedrich M. & Gomez, Margarita & Haushofer, Johannes & Ivchenko, Andriy & Kraft-Todd, Gordon & Reutskaja, El, 2022. "Global Behaviors, Perceptions, and the Emergence of Social Norms at the Onset of the COVID-19 Pandemic," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 193(C), pages 473-496.
    9. Grimalda, Gianluca & Murtin, Fabrice & Pipke, David & Putterman, Louis & Sutter, Matthias, 2023. "The politicized pandemic: Ideological polarization and the behavioral response to COVID-19," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    10. O'Connor, Cliodhna & O'Connell, Nicola & Burke, Emma & Dempster, Martin & Graham, Christopher D. & Scally, Gabriel & Zgaga, Lina & Nolan, Ann & Nicolson, Gail & Mather, Luke & Barry, Joseph & Crowley,, 2021. "Bordering on crisis: A qualitative analysis of focus group, social media, and news media perspectives on the Republic of Ireland-Northern Ireland border during the ‘first wave’ of the COVID-19 pandemi," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).
    11. Dan Goldhaber & Scott A. Imberman & Katharine O. Strunk & Bryant G. Hopkins & Nate Brown & Erica Harbatkin & Tara Kilbride, 2022. "To What Extent Does In‐Person Schooling Contribute To The Spread Of Covid‐19? Evidence From Michigan And Washington," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 41(1), pages 318-349, January.
    12. Guo, Xiaoli & Ryvkin, Dmitry, 2022. "When is intergroup herding beneficial?," Mathematical Social Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 66-77.
    13. Leonardo Baccini & Abel Brodeur & Stephen Weymouth, 2021. "The COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 US presidential election," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 34(2), pages 739-767, April.
    14. Young, Dannagal G. & Rasheed, Huma & Bleakley, Amy & Langbaum, Jessica B., 2022. "The politics of mask-wearing: Political preferences, reactance, and conflict aversion during COVID," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 298(C).
    15. Bartolini, Stefano & Sarracino, Francesco & Slater, Giulia, 2020. "Do epidemics impose a trade-off between freedom and health? Evidence from Europe during Covid-19," MPRA Paper 105035, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Mercer, Katie Holstein & Mollborn, Stefanie, 2023. "Distinction through distancing: Norm formation and enforcement during the COVID-19 pandemic," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    17. Sandra H. Goff & John Ifcher & Homa Zarghamee & Alex Reents & Patrick Wade, 2023. "Support for bigger government: The principle‐implementation gap and COVID‐19," Contemporary Economic Policy, Western Economic Association International, vol. 41(2), pages 243-261, April.
    18. Mellacher, Patrick, 2023. "The impact of corona populism: Empirical evidence from Austria and theory," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 209(C), pages 113-140.
    19. Vincent Canwat, 2023. "Political economy of COVID-19: windows of opportunities and contestations in East Africa," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-16, December.
    20. Amy M. Wolaver & John A. Doces, 2021. "The impact of COVID‐19 and political identification on framing bias in an infectious disease experiment: The frame reigns supreme," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(6), pages 2459-2471, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:igg:jhisi0:v:19:y:2024:i:1:p:1-31. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Journal Editor (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.igi-global.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.