Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/252299 
Year of Publication: 
2022
Series/Report no.: 
ECONtribute Discussion Paper No. 138
Publisher: 
University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Reinhard Selten Institute (RSI), Bonn and Cologne
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.
Subjects: 
Polarization
Ideology
Trust in politicians
COVID-19
Prosociality
Health behavior
Worries
JEL: 
D01
D72
D91
I12
I18
H11
H12
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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