Thousands of Americans who died of COVID-19 might still be alive today if they weren't glued to conservative media that downplayed the threat, a new study with "disturbing implications" has found.
More than 600,000 Americans have died in the pandemic so far, the world's worst toll - at least officially.
While previous research has generally found conservatives generally take more precautions against threats than liberals, that was largely reversed when it came to COVID-19. While liberals were mostly happy to don masks and follow social distancing guidelines, many conservatives loudly rejected advice of medical officials and scientists, proudly refusing to wear masks and claiming the virus wasn't actually that bad.
President Donald Trump - a conservative Republican - led the way, making numerous false claims about the seriousness of the pandemic and frequently undermining the efforts of his own scientific advisers.
"The distrust of science and public health officials, as well as distrust of moderate and liberal media sources, actually countermanded responses that reflected people's underlying personality traits," said UCLA anthropology professor Daniel Fessler, who led a new study into Americans' response to the pandemic and how it reflected their political views and personalities.
"For example, we can think about how behaviors among Republicans and independents may have been different if evangelical church pastors had promoted mask-wearing to protect the elderly and most vulnerable. Instead, conservative Republicans and independents were influenced by high-profile individuals who downplayed the severity of the virus and undermined reliable information sources."
A number of conservative media outlets in the US downplayed the virus. Fox News was recently sued over comments by high-profile hosts, including Sean Hannity, that the pandemic was a hoax; and a poll by respected outlet YouGov found the station's viewers were less likely to take precautions against contracting the virus, such as washing their hands and wearing masks.
"Conservative politicians and news media have expressed greater doubt concerning the seriousness of the outbreak, and Republicans are less likely to trust scientists concerning COVID-19," the new research, published in journal PLOS One, says.
"Long before the current pandemic, prominent US conservatives and conservative media aggressively cast doubt on science, and, correspondingly, trust in science has declined among conservatives in the United States over the past four decades."
The new research found Republicans who actually did trust the science actually took more safety precautions than the typical liberal - reflecting their inherently cautious nature. But there was a clear link between consumption of conservative media outlets and a failure to take precautions.
"The findings suggest that Republicans would have been substantially more careful had their media environment encouraged them to do so, plausibly saving many thousands of lives and preventing scores of long-term health problems related to COVID infection," said study co-author cognitive scientist Colin Holbrook from UC Merced.
The study didn't cite Fox News or any other outlet directly, but did say "most of the public voices questioning the severity of the outbreak are conservative leaders and conservative media outlets associated with the Republican party", and cited prior research which did - including a paper from May last year, How Right-Leaning Media Coverage of COVID-19 Facilitated the Spread of Misinformation in the Early Stages of the Pandemic in the US, which noted only about half as many Fox News viewers were concerned about COVID-19 than CNN viewers or newspaper readers.
"As we flatten the information highway, giving everyone a voice on social media, we undermine or lose the authority of professional journalists and scientists," said Prof Fessler. "There is great potential for misinformation about science to be disseminated, and for people to actually act against their gut instincts or self-interest."
