Barrios John M, Hochberg Yael V
Washington University St. Louis and NBER, United States.
Rice University and NBER, 6100 Main St. MS-531, Houston, United States.
J financ econ. 2021 Nov;142(2):862-879. doi: 10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.05.039. Epub 2021 Jun 1.
Politics may color interpretations of facts, and thus perceptions of risk. We find that a higher share of Trump voters in a county is associated with lower perceptions of risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. Controlling for COVID-19 case counts and deaths, as Trump's vote share rises in the local area, individuals search less for information on the virus and its potential economic impacts, and engage in fewer visits to non-essential businesses. Our results suggest that politics and the media may play an important role in determining the formation of risk perceptions, and may therefore affect both economic and health-related reactions to unanticipated health crises.
政治可能会影响对事实的解读，进而影响对风险的认知。我们发现，在一个县中特朗普选民所占比例越高，在新冠疫情期间人们对风险的认知就越低。在控制新冠病例数和死亡人数的情况下，随着特朗普在当地的选票份额上升，个人对病毒及其潜在经济影响的信息搜索减少，前往非必要商业场所的次数也减少。我们的研究结果表明，政治和媒体可能在决定风险认知的形成方面发挥重要作用，因此可能会影响对意外健康危机的经济和健康相关反应。
