What Factors Affect People's Opinions Toward COVID-19 and Contact Tracing Apps in the United States

Abstract

In January 2022, at the peak of COVID-19 in the United States, we administered an online survey on Prolific Academic to 302 participants in the United States, a nationally demographic representative sample based on age, gender, and race. To explore differences in attitudes and opinions among demographic subgroups, we employed several statistical tests, including Mann Whitney U tests, Kruskal-Wallis tests, and chi-squared tests. Our survey results suggest that Americans' opinions towards the COVID-19 pandemic are severely divided by their political views. There is strong partisan polarization in almost every COVID-19 related question in our survey. Our findings suggest that policy makers need to consider partisan polarization and the enormous impact it can have on people's attitudes and behaviors during public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Public health experts need to consider how to convey scientific knowledge about a pandemic without allowing political views to dominate medical conversation.