TY - JOUR
T1 - Factors affecting public responses to health messages during the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia
T2 - partisanship, values, and source credibility
AU - Botterill, Linda
AU - Lake, Joshua
AU - Walsh, Michael
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Linkage Grant in partnership with Pureprofile (Project LP150100434). Joshua Lake is supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and University Postgraduate Award. The authors would like to thank Professor Julie Lee, Director of the Centre for Human and Cultural Values at UWA for inviting them to be part of the survey that underpins the research reported in this paper.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Australian Political Studies Association.
PY - 2021/10/2
Y1 - 2021/10/2
N2 - The COVID-19 crisis highlighted issues of trust in government and experts, as citizens were asked to accept restrictions on liberties in order to slow the spread of the virus. Based on a survey of 1992 Australians conducted in May 2020, this paper reports on the attitudes of Australians toward the responses of their State and Federal governments to the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, we found support for government responses differed with partisan alignment. However, when we controlled for values differences, we found that values predicted social distancing attitudes and behaviour. This oppugns the common conclusion in political psychology that party alignment is a proxy for values. Scientists were trusted more than political institutions or actors for accurate COVID-19 information, and likewise, traditional media were preferred to online sources. These findings have implications for policy communication when individual action is required to address collective goals.
AB - The COVID-19 crisis highlighted issues of trust in government and experts, as citizens were asked to accept restrictions on liberties in order to slow the spread of the virus. Based on a survey of 1992 Australians conducted in May 2020, this paper reports on the attitudes of Australians toward the responses of their State and Federal governments to the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, we found support for government responses differed with partisan alignment. However, when we controlled for values differences, we found that values predicted social distancing attitudes and behaviour. This oppugns the common conclusion in political psychology that party alignment is a proxy for values. Scientists were trusted more than political institutions or actors for accurate COVID-19 information, and likewise, traditional media were preferred to online sources. These findings have implications for policy communication when individual action is required to address collective goals.
KW - Personal values
KW - Partisan Alignment
KW - COVID-19
KW - Political Communication
KW - Source Credibility
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85115757764&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/10361146.2021.1978389
DO - 10.1080/10361146.2021.1978389
M3 - Article
SN - 1036-1146
VL - 56
SP - 358
EP - 375
JO - Australian Journal of Political Science
JF - Australian Journal of Political Science
IS - 4
ER -