University of Sussex, United Kingdom.
Soc Sci Med. 2023 Sep;333:116090. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2023.116090. Epub 2023 Jul 17.
As a response to the shortcomings of the U.S. healthcare system, Americans are increasingly turning to crowdfunding platforms to bankroll their health-related costs. However, although medical crowdfunding has rapidly become institutionalized as part of the U.S. healthcare financing landscape, empirical evidence on how Americans perceive its role in healthcare and the impact it might have on public attitudes is scarce. To shed more light on the above, we analyze data from one correlational and one experimental study conducted over September-November 2021. Our correlational study reveals that political orientation is associated with Americans' views on medical crowdfunding. Specifically, we find that those who self-identified as conservative perceived medical crowdfunding as a valid part of the system, and more positively than a universal healthcare system. In contrast, medical crowdfunding is perceived less positively, as hindering a system of universal and affordable healthcare by those more liberally-oriented. In our experimental study, we explore how medical crowdfunding narratives can induce social attitudes conducive to change. Specifically, we test the effect of politicized narratives (vs. control) on group efficacy and subsequently on collective action intentions for healthcare reform, as a function of political orientation. Our results show that politicized narratives might induce collective action intentions through higher group efficacy, but only among those who self-identified as conservative. Liberally-oriented individuals held high collective action intentions for healthcare reform and were not affected by the manipulation. Our work is the first to establish empirically that medical crowdfunding, when employing politicized narratives, can induce collective action intentions, but this effect is moderated by political ideology.
作为对美国医疗体系缺陷的回应，越来越多的美国人开始转向众筹平台为他们的医疗相关费用提供资金。然而，尽管医疗众筹已迅速成为美国医疗融资领域的一部分，但关于美国人如何看待其在医疗保健中的作用以及它可能对公众态度产生的影响的实证证据却很少。为了更深入地了解这一点，我们分析了 2021 年 9 月至 11 月期间进行的一项相关研究和一项实验研究的数据。我们的相关研究表明，政治取向与美国人对医疗众筹的看法有关。具体来说，我们发现那些自认为保守的人认为医疗众筹是该体系的有效组成部分，比全民医保制度更正面。相比之下，那些更倾向于自由的人则认为医疗众筹的负面影响更大，因为它阻碍了全民医保和负担得起的医疗体系的建立。在我们的实验研究中，我们探讨了医疗众筹叙事如何引发有利于变革的社会态度。具体来说，我们测试了政治化叙事（与对照组相比）对群体效能感的影响，以及政治取向对随后的医疗改革集体行动意图的影响。我们的研究结果表明，政治化叙事可以通过提高群体效能感来引发集体行动意图，但这种效果仅在那些自认为保守的人中显现。倾向于自由的人对医疗改革有很高的集体行动意图，不受这种操纵的影响。我们的工作首次从实证上证明，医疗众筹在采用政治化叙事时可以引发集体行动意图，但这种效果受到政治意识形态的调节。
