In November 2020, we* collected the first wave of data for The Longitudinal Study of Dynamics of Social Life During COVID-19 (DSL-COVID). This is a nationally representative survey with an oversample of Asian Americans. Our statistics are adjusted with weights so that our results are generalizable to the US population. Our survey includes 1,768 whites, 592 Asian Americans, 309 Black Americans, and 355 Hispanics.
GENERAL ATTITUDES TOWARDS COVID-19
- Respondents were asked on a scale of 1-7 to report on how much they agree with the following statements:
- “COVID-19 is a threat to the health of the US population”: 1 means they think COVID-19 is not a threat and 7 means COVID-19 is a major threat to the health of the US population. The mean score for our sample is 5.5.
- “I am worried about getting sick with COVID-19”: 1 means they are not worried and 7 means they are worried about getting sick with COVID-19. The mean score for our sample is 4.7.
- “I am worried about spreading COVID-19 to others”: 1 means they are not worried and 7 means they are worried about spreading COVID-19 to other people. The mean score for our sample is 4.6.
- Overall, 49% of our sample report that they think COVID-19 is a major threat to the health of the US population.
- 28% of our sample report the highest level of worry about getting sick with COVID-19, while 29% of our sample report the highest level of worry about spreading COVID-19.
ATTITUDES TOWARDS COVID-19 BY RACE
- Whites have the lowest levels of concern in their attitudes about COVID-19, while Asian Americans have the highest levels of concern.
- In terms of seeing COVID-19 as a major threat to the health of the US population, whites are the least likely, followed by Asians and Hispanics. Blacks are the most worried about COVID-19 being a major threat to the health of the population overall.
- All racial minority groups worry more about getting sick with COVID-19 compared to whites.
- All racial minority groups have a higher mean score for worry about spreading COVID-19 to other people compared to whites.
ATTITUDES TOWARDS COVID-19 BY GENDER
- Compared to men, women are more likely to see COVID-19 as a major threat to the health of the US population.
- Women also have higher mean scores for worry about getting sick with COVID-19 and worry about spreading COVID-19 to other people compared to men.
ATTITUDES TOWARDS COVID-19 BY POLITICAL PARTY
- Democrats have the highest level of concern in terms of their attitudes towards COVID-19, while Republicans have the lowest level of concern.
- Democrats have the highest mean score for seeing COVID-19 as a threat to the health of the US population, followed by “Other” and Republicans.
- Democrats are more worried about getting sick with COVID compared to respondents who identify as Republican or Other.
- Democrats are also more worried about spreading COVID to other people compared to respondents who identify as Republican or Other.
- Both Democrats and Republicans are more worried about getting sick with COVID than spreading COVID to others, while respondents who identify as another political party are equally worried about getting sick with and spreading COVID-19 to others.
*Project PI=Grace Kao, IBM Professor of Sociology, Yale University.
Graduate Student RAs: Hannah Tessler and Meera Choi, Department of Sociology, Yale University.
**We gratefully acknowledge support from the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies, Yale University.
Suggested Citation:
Tessler, Hannah, Meera Choi, and Grace Kao. 2021. “Attitudes Towards COVID-19 Vary by Race, Gender, and Political Party.” Research Brief from The Longitudinal Study of Dynamics of Social Life During COVID-19 (DSL-COVID). https://campuspress.yale.edu/dslcovid/fact-sheet-5/.