Political affiliation moderates subjective interpretations of COVID-19 graphs.

ABSTRACT: We examined the relationship between political affiliation, perceptual (percentage, slope) estimates, and subjective judgements of disease prevalence and mortality across three chart types. An online survey (N = 787) exposed separate groups of participants to charts displaying (a) COVID-19 data or (b) COVID-19 data labeled 'Influenza (Flu)'. Block 1 examined responses to cross-sectional mortality data (bar graphs, treemaps); results revealed that perceptual estimates comparing mortality in two countries were similar across political affiliations and chart types (all ps > .05), while subjective judgements revealed a disease x political party interaction (p < .05). Although Democrats and Republicans provided similar proportion estimates, Democrats interpreted mortality to be hi

SUBMITTER: Ericson JD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8899844 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature