Early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the US: The adverse mental health impact of risk perception and expected infection severity appeared to be much stronger for Republicans than Democrats

The interplay between partisanship, risk perception, and mental distress during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Soyoung Kwon. Psychology, Health & Medicine, Jan 20 2022. https://doi.org/10.1080/13548506.2022.2029916 

Abstract: COVID-19 is a profoundly partisan issue in the U.S., with increasing polarization of the Republicans’ and Democrats’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and their precautionary actions to reduce virus transmission. Nevertheless, it remains unclear whether and how partisan gaps in many aspects of the pandemic are linked to mental health, which has increasingly been a major concern. This study examined the association between political partisanship and mental health by assessing the mediating and moderating relationships between risk perception, expected infection severity of COVID-19, and partisanship in terms of mental health during the early stages of the pandemic. The data were drawn from a cross-sectional web survey conducted between March 20 and 30, 2020, with a sample of U.S. adults (N = 4,327). Of those participants, 38.9% and 29.6% were Democrats and Republicans, respectively. The results indicate that Democrats were more likely to experience COVID-induced mental distress than Republicans, and higher risk perception and expected infection severity were associated with mental distress. Furthermore, risk perception and expected infection severity of COVID-19 mediated approximately 24%–34% of the associations between political partisanship and mental distress. Finally, the adverse mental health impact of risk perception and expected infection severity appeared to be much stronger for Republicans than Democrats. The findings suggest that political partisanship is a key factor to understanding mental health consequences of the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S.

Keywords: Partisanshipmental distresspandemicrisk perception

Across all model specifications, high-income individuals were more likely to donate their money and volunteer their time than low-income individuals; were more likely to engage in prosocial behavior under high (vs. low) income inequality

The Link Between Income, Income Inequality, and Prosocial Behavior Around the World - A Multiverse Approach. Lucía Macchia and Ashley V. Whillans. Social Psychology Vol. 52, No. 6, January 10, 2022 https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000466

Abstract. The questions of whether high-income individuals are more prosocial than low-income individuals and whether income inequality moderates this effect have received extensive attention. We shed new light on this topic by analyzing a large-scale dataset with a representative sample of respondents from 133 countries (N = 948,837). We conduct a multiverse analysis with 30 statistical models: 15 models predicting the likelihood of donating money to charity and 15 models predicting the likelihood of volunteering time to an organization. Across all model specifications, high-income individuals were more likely to donate their money and volunteer their time than low-income individuals. High-income individuals were more likely to engage in prosocial behavior under high (vs. low) income inequality. Avenues for future research and potential mechanisms are discussed.

Check also Does economic inequality moderate the effect of class on prosocial behavior? A large-scale test of a recent hypothesis by Côté et al. Hagen von Hermanni, Andreas Tutic. PLOS, August 9, 2019. https://www.bipartisanalliance.com/2019/08/cote-et-al-argue-that-societies-with.html