"The divide in anxiety along partisan lines is very troubling," says Shana Gadarian, and that it is "likely to continue until the president and conservative media allow the health experts to lead the messaging." Her co-authored research paper, "Partisanship, Health Behavior, and Policy Attitudes in the Early Stages of the Covid-19 Pandemic," was cited in the New York Times article "Covid-19 Is Twisting 2020 Beyond All."

Gadarian’s research concerning the politics of the early COVID-19 pandemic was funded by a $53,040 grant from the National Science Foundation for the project “RAPID: Impact of Coronavirus Understanding, Trust, and Other Public Beliefs and Attitudes on Behavioral Responses.” Gadarian is joined on this project by Sara Wallace Goodman of the University of California, Irvine and Thomas Pepinsky of Cornell University. Their research, which has been funded through August, will assess how low levels of trust and deep political polarization are influencing how the general public responds to public health and other policy efforts to address the growing pandemic. Gadarian and her colleagues’ efforts will help inform public officials and policy makers as to how to better communicate with the U.S. public in both present and future public health emergencies. 

Gadarian is an associate professor of political science and a senior research associate with the Campbell Public Affairs Institute. She specializes in American politics, politics psychology, political communication, and public opinion. Her recent co-authored book, Anxious Politics: Democratic Citizenship in a Threatening World (Cambridge University Press, 2015), won the American Political Science Association’s 2016 Robert E. Lane Award for best book in political psychology.

You can find more information about the National Science Foundation’s efforts to fund research on COVID-19 on their website.

04/01/20