Cargando…
Who is to blame for COVID-19? Examining politicized fear and health behavior through a mixed methods study in the United States
BACKGROUND: Political ideologies drove public actions and health behaviors in the first year of the global pandemic. Different ideas about contagion, health behaviors, and the actions of governing bodies impacted the spread of the virus and health and life. Researchers used an immediate, mixed metho...
Autores principales: | , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Public Library of Science
2021
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8409642/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34469453 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256136 |
_version_ | 1783747022314012672 |
---|---|
author | Hardy, Lisa J. Mana, Adi Mundell, Leah Neuman, Moran Benheim, Sharón Otenyo, Eric |
author_facet | Hardy, Lisa J. Mana, Adi Mundell, Leah Neuman, Moran Benheim, Sharón Otenyo, Eric |
author_sort | Hardy, Lisa J. |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Political ideologies drove public actions and health behaviors in the first year of the global pandemic. Different ideas about contagion, health behaviors, and the actions of governing bodies impacted the spread of the virus and health and life. Researchers used an immediate, mixed methods design to explore sociocultural responses to the virus and identified differences and similarities in anxiety, fear, blame, and perceptions of nation across political divides. METHODS: Researchers conducted 60 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and administered over 1,000 questionnaires with people living in the United States. The team analyzed data through an exploratory and confirmatory sequential mixed methods design. RESULTS: In the first months of the pandemic interviewees cited economic inequality, untrustworthy corporations and other entities, and the federal government as threats to life and pandemic control. Participants invoked ideas about others to determine blame. Findings reveal heavy associations between lack of safety during a public health crisis and blame of “culture” and government power across the political spectrum. CONCLUSION: Data indicate anxiety across political differences related to ideas of contagion and the maleficence of a powerful elite. Findings on how people understand the nation, politics, and pandemic management contribute to understanding dimensions of health behaviors and underlying connections between anxiety and the uptake of conspiracy theories in public health. The article ends with recommendations drawn from project findings for future pandemic response. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8409642 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Public Library of Science |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-84096422021-09-02 Who is to blame for COVID-19? Examining politicized fear and health behavior through a mixed methods study in the United States Hardy, Lisa J. Mana, Adi Mundell, Leah Neuman, Moran Benheim, Sharón Otenyo, Eric PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: Political ideologies drove public actions and health behaviors in the first year of the global pandemic. Different ideas about contagion, health behaviors, and the actions of governing bodies impacted the spread of the virus and health and life. Researchers used an immediate, mixed methods design to explore sociocultural responses to the virus and identified differences and similarities in anxiety, fear, blame, and perceptions of nation across political divides. METHODS: Researchers conducted 60 in-depth, semi-structured interviews and administered over 1,000 questionnaires with people living in the United States. The team analyzed data through an exploratory and confirmatory sequential mixed methods design. RESULTS: In the first months of the pandemic interviewees cited economic inequality, untrustworthy corporations and other entities, and the federal government as threats to life and pandemic control. Participants invoked ideas about others to determine blame. Findings reveal heavy associations between lack of safety during a public health crisis and blame of “culture” and government power across the political spectrum. CONCLUSION: Data indicate anxiety across political differences related to ideas of contagion and the maleficence of a powerful elite. Findings on how people understand the nation, politics, and pandemic management contribute to understanding dimensions of health behaviors and underlying connections between anxiety and the uptake of conspiracy theories in public health. The article ends with recommendations drawn from project findings for future pandemic response. Public Library of Science 2021-09-01 /pmc/articles/PMC8409642/ /pubmed/34469453 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256136 Text en © 2021 Hardy et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. |
spellingShingle | Research Article Hardy, Lisa J. Mana, Adi Mundell, Leah Neuman, Moran Benheim, Sharón Otenyo, Eric Who is to blame for COVID-19? Examining politicized fear and health behavior through a mixed methods study in the United States |
title | Who is to blame for COVID-19? Examining politicized fear and health behavior through a mixed methods study in the United States |
title_full | Who is to blame for COVID-19? Examining politicized fear and health behavior through a mixed methods study in the United States |
title_fullStr | Who is to blame for COVID-19? Examining politicized fear and health behavior through a mixed methods study in the United States |
title_full_unstemmed | Who is to blame for COVID-19? Examining politicized fear and health behavior through a mixed methods study in the United States |
title_short | Who is to blame for COVID-19? Examining politicized fear and health behavior through a mixed methods study in the United States |
title_sort | who is to blame for covid-19? examining politicized fear and health behavior through a mixed methods study in the united states |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8409642/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34469453 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0256136 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT hardylisaj whoistoblameforcovid19examiningpoliticizedfearandhealthbehaviorthroughamixedmethodsstudyintheunitedstates AT manaadi whoistoblameforcovid19examiningpoliticizedfearandhealthbehaviorthroughamixedmethodsstudyintheunitedstates AT mundellleah whoistoblameforcovid19examiningpoliticizedfearandhealthbehaviorthroughamixedmethodsstudyintheunitedstates AT neumanmoran whoistoblameforcovid19examiningpoliticizedfearandhealthbehaviorthroughamixedmethodsstudyintheunitedstates AT benheimsharon whoistoblameforcovid19examiningpoliticizedfearandhealthbehaviorthroughamixedmethodsstudyintheunitedstates AT otenyoeric whoistoblameforcovid19examiningpoliticizedfearandhealthbehaviorthroughamixedmethodsstudyintheunitedstates |