Vulnerability Appeals in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from a National Survey Experiment

Larner, Jac ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5171-8851 and Thorp, Joshua R. 2024. Vulnerability Appeals in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Insights from a National Survey Experiment. Journal of Experimental Political Science 10.1017/XPS.2024.14

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Abstract

This study explores the impact of vulnerability appeals during the COVID-19 pandemic using a nationally representative, pre-registered survey experiment (N=4,087) conducted in mid-2021. We explore whether providing citizens with information about the vulnerability of ethnic minority and disabled citizens to COVID-19 fosters empathy and increased support for behavioural restrictions. We observe minimal statistically significant or substantive effects, although the presence of subtle effects cannot be entirely ruled out. We identify some limited indications that individuals with disabilities exhibit increased support for restrictions when exposed to information about the vulner- ability of disabled people to COVID-19, but these effects are inconsistent. Therefore, our findings provide limited evidence to confirm or rule out that using vulnerability appeals alone is effective for influencing public attitudes toward behavioural restrictions. The findings point toward avenues for future research, including a closer examination of heterogeneous responses to public health messaging among population subgroups.

Item Type:	Article
Status:	Published
Schools:	Cardiff Law & Politics Department of Politics and International Relations (POLIR) Wales Governance Centre (WGCES)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) J Political Science > JA Political science (General)
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
ISSN:	2052-2649
Funders:	Economic and Social Research Council
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	23 August 2024
Date of Acceptance:	24 July 2024
Last Modified:	25 Nov 2024 13:30
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/171554

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