Political and Social Drivers of COVID-19 Prevention and Climate Change Behaviors and Attitudes

Carl A. Latkin, Zoé Mistrale Hendrickson, Lauren Dayton, Haley Bonneau

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Attitudes and behaviors related to the COVID-19 pandemic and the climate change crisis might be driven by similar political beliefs and attitudes. The current study used a neo-Gramsci perspective to examine how political attitudes may be linked to COVID-19 prevention and climate change attitudes and behaviors. A longitudinal online survey in the US assessed climate change and COVID-19 attitudes and behaviors, and wave 7 (2021) data were used to predict outcomes at wave 8 (2022) among 572 respondents. There were significant correlations among the variables of political ideology, climate change concerns, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, COVID-19 skepticism, COVID-19 vaccine as a personal choice, COVID-19 conspiracy, political correctness, percent of Republican friends, and dislike of the Democratic Party. In the multivariate models, COVID-19 vaccination as a personal choice was significantly associated with the four outcomes: vaccination status, climate change actions, vaccine hesitancy, and climate change concerns. COVID-19 skepticism was significantly associated with vaccination status, vaccine hesitancy, and climate change concerns. These findings suggest that there are similar drivers of COVID-19 prevention and climate change attitudes and behaviors, and interventions need to be tailored to target individual-level and societal-level factors.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number53
JournalClimate
Volume11
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 2023

Keywords

  • COVID-19
  • Gramsci
  • activism
  • climate change
  • longitudinal
  • political
  • vaccination

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Atmospheric Science

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