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Yikes! The Effect of Incidental Disgust and Information on Public Attitudes During the COVID ‐19 Pandemic
Author(s) -
Georgarakis George N.
Publication year - 2023
Publication title -
political psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.419
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1467-9221
pISSN - 0162-895X
DOI - 10.1111/pops.12865
Subject(s) - disgust , public opinion , anger , psychology , social psychology , authoritarianism , politics , pandemic , covid-19 , political science , disease , medicine , democracy , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law , pathology
Existing research has focused extensively on the role of emotions such as anger, fear, and enthusiasm in explaining public opinion, but less is known about the importance of disgust, an innate disease‐related emotion. To study the independent and joint effects of disgust and information, I draw on the case of the COVID‐19 pandemic. I demonstrate that experimentally induced incidental disgust and exposure to information about how to flatten the curve of the COVID‐19 cases have distinctive effects on political, racial, and health attitudes. Independently, exposure to information affects preferences only for restrictive policies to fight the spread of the virus. In contrast, the stand‐alone effect of incidental disgust, as well as its joint effect with exposure to information, are responsible for attitude change toward both pandemic‐relevant and irrelevant policies, Asian minorities, and prevention measures. Importantly, the study finds that citizens respond symmetrically to disgusting stimuli and information across degrees of political awareness, ideology, partisan affiliation, and trait authoritarianism. The results draw attention to the far‐reaching implications of disgust on public opinion under threatening conditions.