Voluntary physical distancing is essential for preventing the spread of Covid-19. Political partisanship may influence individuals' responsiveness to recommendations from political leaders. Daily mobility during March 2020 was measured using location information from a sample of mobile phones in 3,100 US counties across 49 states. Governors' Twitter communications were used to determine the timing of messaging about Covid-19 prevention. Regression analyses examined how political preferences influenced the association between governors' Covid-19 communications and residents' mobility patterns. Governors' recommendations for residents to stay at home preceded stay-at-home orders, and led to a significant reduction in mobility that was comparable to the effect of the orders themselves. Effects were larger in Democratic than Republican leaning counties, a pattern more pronounced under Republican governors. Democratic leaning counties also responded more to recommendations from Republican than Democratic governors. Political partisanship influences citizens' decisions to voluntarily engage in physical distancing in response to communications by their governor.
Lead investigator: |
Guy Grossman |
Affiliation: |
University of Pennsylvania |
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Unit of real-time data collection |
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Start date |
3/2020 |
End date |
3/2020 |
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