Abstract
A US national probability-based survey during the early days of the SARS-CoV-2 spread in the US showed that, above and beyond respondents’ political party, mainstream broadcast media use (e.g., NBC News) correlated with accurate information about the disease's lethality, and mainstream print media use (e.g., the New York Times) correlated with accurate beliefs about protection from infection. In addition, conservative media use (e.g., Fox News) correlated with conspiracy theories including believing that some in the CDC were exaggerating the seriousness of the virus to undermine the presidency of Donald Trump. Five recommendations are made to improve public understanding of SARS-CoV-2.
Highlights
Did party identification correlate with levels of information about the lethality of the virus? Does use of different types of media correlate with accurate or inaccurate information regarding SARS-CoV-2 prevention? For example: Does use of any type of media correlate with information about lethality and appropriate methods of prevention? Does the use of social media rather than either broadcast or traditional print media covary with belief in misinformation and conspiracy theories regarding SARS-CoV-2? Does use of social media or of conservative media correlate with increased belief in conspiracy theories being trafficked in these venues?
In early March 2020, how informed was the US public about ways in which one can protect oneself from SARS-CoV-2 and of its relative lethality compared to the seasonal flu?
With coverage of SARS-CoV-2 dominating discussions on air, in print, and online, between March 3 and March 8, 2020 we fielded a US national probability phone survey of 1,008 respondents to (a) determine the accuracy of the public’s understanding of the relative lethality of the seasonal flu and the coronavirus and of the need to prevent SARS-CoV-2’s spread by hand washing and avoiding those showing symptoms of respiratory illness, and (b) assess the association between use of various media channels and accurate and inaccurate beliefs and conspiracy theories about SARS-CoV-2 while controlling for potential differences between Republicans and Democrats, who have been reported to differ in concern with SARS-CoV-2 (Gallup, 2020)
Summary
All associations stem from a multipleregression analysis with controls for political party, political ideology, education, gender, and age. All simple correlations appear in the Appendix and indicate relations among party, ideology, demographic, and media predictors and the need to control for them through multiple regressions. Familiarity with SARS-CoV-2 Familiarity with the novel coronavirus was high. Ninety-six percent of the sample reported having heard about it
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