Ideology and COVID

Our data make the case that conservative political ideology is associated with poorer handling of COVID-19. In Study 1, Canadian provinces and territories were categorized in terms of whether there was a conservative majority in power. Infection and death rates in conservative provinces were higher and rose faster. Conservative provinces had higher infection and death rates in nursing homes, had more business insolvencies, took longer to introduce mask mandates and dropped them sooner, allowed larger religious gatherings, and took longer to introduce interprovincial travel bans (or had none). Residents of conservative provinces were more likely to engage in anti-mask and anti-lockdown protests, and less likely to have been vaccinated. Study 2 examined similar variables in the United States as a function of the percentage of states’ votes for Donald Trump (the more conservative candidate) in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, and found similar results. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.