City Research Online

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemics represent a dramatic global health emergency; exploring its cultural impact is important. We contribute to this by investigating changes in political opinions following the pandemics (focusing on the UK and the USA; these were examined jointly given their cultural similarity). Online, participants (recruited via the Prolific website) answered (newly created) questions probing how their opinion about immigration, patriotism, and welfare policies changed following the pandemics. Also, they indicated their political orientation and level of anxiety about coronavirus. We found that political orientation influenced opinion change so that left-wing, compared to right-wing, participants reported decreased patriotism and more positive attitude towards immigration and welfare policies. Higher anxiety about coronavirus was associated with larger opinion change in all areas investigated. Finally, right-wing, compared to left-wing, participants reported lower anxiety about coronavirus. These observations suggest that political orientation and anxiety modulated the impact of the coronavirus emergency on political opinions.

Publication Type:	Article
Additional Information:	This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in The Social Science Journal on 11 Sep 2020, available online: https://doi.org/10.1080/03623319.2020.1806583
Publisher Keywords:	Coronavirus; immigration; anxiety; patriotism; welfare; opinion; political ideology
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform J Political Science J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration Q Science > QR Microbiology > QR180 Immunology R Medicine > RA Public aspects of medicine > RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology
SWORD Depositor:	Symplectic Administrator

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