Effective communication in times of crisis: The case of face mask mandates in the United States

Abstract

AbstractWe evaluate communication policies related to COVID‐19 adopted by governors in the United States and explore how communication and policy directives are impacted by hyper‐polarised situations, namely the presence of a divided government. This work sheds light on the challenges of crisis communication and executive leadership. Using a combination of robust regression and text and sentiment analyses, we compare the timing of and the language used by governors who imposed state‐wide facemask mandates in 2020. We find that racially diverse states with Democratic governors acted more quickly than states with comparably older populations, had more people living in one household, and without health insurance. Further, we find that Democratic governors were slower to act when their decision could be checked by a Republican legislature highlighting the restrictive nature that executives face in crises.