HOW HYPOCRITICAL POLITICIANS IMPACT THEIR FOLLOWERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF COVID-19

Abstract

Two studies tested the prediction that Republicans and Democrats respond differently to politicians that are hypocritical regarding the COVID-safe behavior, disinfecting public surfaces. These differences centered on the fact that COVID-safety is pro-attitudinal for Democrats and counter-attitudinal for Republicans. Because of this, Democrats would experience dissonance because of the politician’s hypocrisy, but Republicans would experience dissonance because the politician is endorsing a counter-attitudinal stance. As such, Democrats would respond to a hypocrite by bolstering support for the hypocrite’s message, and Democrats exposed to a non-hypocrite would have no significant attitude change. Conversely, Republicans exposed to anon-hypocrite would show positive attitude change toward disinfecting public surfaces, and no attitude change when exposed to a hypocrite. Experiment 1 (N = 283) had findings largely consistent with predictions. Experiment 2 (N = 440) did not replicate these findings; however, the predicted pattern of data was observed in participant responses to a measure of endorsementof COVID-denial statements. This difference was attributed to participants utilizing a different dissonance reduction strategy. The discussion section focuses on potential explanations for why this change occurred and future directions for research.