Political storms: Emergent partisan skepticism of hurricane risks.
Sci Adv
; 6(37)2020 09.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-760202
ABSTRACT
Mistrust of scientific evidence and government-issued guidelines is increasingly correlated with political affiliation. Survey evidence has documented skepticism in a diverse set of issues including climate change, vaccine hesitancy, and, most recently, COVID-19 risks. Less well understood is whether these beliefs alter high-stakes behavior. Combining GPS data for 2.7 million smartphone users in Florida and Texas with 2016 U.S. presidential election precinct-level results, we examine how conservative-media dismissals of hurricane advisories in 2017 influenced evacuation decisions. Likely Trump-voting Florida residents were 10 to 11 percentage points less likely to evacuate Hurricane Irma than Clinton voters (34% versus 45%), a gap not present in prior hurricanes. Results are robust to fine-grain geographic controls, which compare likely Clinton and Trump voters living within 150 m of each other. The rapid surge in media-led suspicion of hurricane forecasts-and the resulting divide in self-protective measures-illustrates a large behavioral consequence of science denialism.
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Politics
/
Denial, Psychological
/
Trust
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
/
Qualitative research
/
Randomized controlled trials
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Year:
2020
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Sciadv.abb7906
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