The Effects of COVID-19 on External Political Efficacy

Abstract

Significant scholarship examines the effects of disasters and disaster management on political behavior and attitudes. Yet, no research has assessed how health crises might shape people’s levels of external efficacy, nor how disaster response affects external efficacy beyond localized extreme-weather events. Using the United States as a case study, we seek to fill these gaps in the literature by exploring how individuals’ external political efficacy is affected by assessments of the federal COVID response. With an original collection of survey data from April 2020, we find that respondents who view the government’s handling of COVID more positively report higher levels of external efficacy. In a secondary analysis, we performed an experiment in February 2021 where people were given different narratives about government management of the pandemic response. The experimental results strongly suggest that disaster management—in this case the handling of the pandemic—shapes individuals’ efficacy.