Thread by @LouiseHalberg

Happy to share that @M_B_Petersen and I have a new preprint out! 📃
We argue that the polarized public opinion towards COVID-19 restrictions was driven not only by ideology but also by a second dimension capturing trust in “the system”. A thread below 👇
osf.io/preprints/psya…

First, think back to the beginning of the COVID-19. Public opinion regarding restrictions and lockdowns quickly polarized. In a societal crisis such as COVID-19, it is crucial to understand the drivers behind citizen’s attitudes to navigate the crisis effectively.

The political polarization has often been interpreted as a divide along the left-right dimension of political opinion. But, there is increasing awareness that public opinion is structured by two distinct dimensions: left-right orientation and trust in ‘the system’.

In our manuscript, we examine the divide in COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors and show that ideology and system trust are both drivers. We do this based on monthly surveys from September 2020 to July 2021 from eight western countries (🇺🇸🇬🇧🇩🇰🇩🇪🇮🇹🇫🇷🇸🇪🇭🇺).

We show that citizens with right-wing ideologies and those who do not trust “the system” were less supportive of government measures against the virus and changed their behaviors less compared to citizens with left-wing ideologies and those with high system trust.

The results are stable across time and countries. We also find that the behavioral differences are larger between those who support the system and those who do not than between those with right- and left-wing ideological outlook, respectively.

This implies that system trust is at least as important as ideology in terms of shaping cleavages in COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors.

The paper is from my time working on the @HopeProject_dk. On the project I learned a lot from the great @FrederikJuhlJr1, @boralexander1 and not least my coauthor @M_B_Petersen - and I am really happy to finally see the paper out 🥳