Democrats and independents stigmatize people with COVID-19 greater compared to Republicans

ABSTRACT

Messaging about COVID-19 was different across the political spectrum, which influenced differences in attitudes surrounding COVID-19. This study examined the political affiliation/ideology on COVID-19 stigma (blame, deservingness of help, negative emotionality) and two mediators of this relationship: conspiracy beliefs and anxiety about COVID-19. Participants answered questions about their political affiliation and ideology, attitudes toward people who have contracted COVID-19; and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs and anxiety. Democrats and Independents indirectly stigmatized people with COVID-19 via increased COVID-19 anxiety and fewer COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs relative to Republicans. Politicization can strongly impact stigma, and messaging could be harnessed as a stigma reduction tool.

KEYWORDS:

• COVID-19 stigma
• political party
• political ideology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data described in this article are openly available in the Open Science Framework at https://osf.io/3jtm5.

Open Scholarship

This article has earned the Center for Open Science badges for Open Data and Open Materials through Open Practices Disclosure. The data and materials are openly accessible at https://osf.io/3jtm5.

Notes

1. We also ran the analyses with Independents as the reference group. All findings worked in a similar fashion as described as above, the only major difference is that the indirect relationship between political party and personal assistance became non-significant. Details on these findings are in the supplemental materials.

Additional information

Funding

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Notes on contributors

Chelsea L. Monheim

Chelsea L. Monheim, M.A., is a graduate student at Kent State University pursuing a PhD in psychological sciences with a focus on social health. They study interventions to reduce health disparities among people with concealable stigmatized identities.

Mary S. Himmelstein

Mary S. Himmelstein, PhD is an assistant professor of psychological sciences at Kent State University. She studies the relationship between intersecting identities, stress, and coping with a particular focus on weight stigma.