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Who Did You Call Following the Boston Marathon Bombing?

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"Northeastern University in Boston has just launched a study of how mobile phones are used for communication around emergencies, with two surveys to examine phone use during Hurricane Sandy, and after the bombings at the Boston Marathon. Both surveys utilize special Android apps that, while preserving privacy, identify the contacts that participants spoke to and texted with most frequently during and after these events. The app then generates a survey that asks participants about how they were affected by events (e.g., Did they lose electricity during Sandy? How near the bombings were they?), their relationships to important contacts, as well as questions about their reliance on social and mainstream media."

United States. Department of Homeland Security. Science and Technology Directorate

Lazer, David

2013-05-21
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey

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From the Cover Memo: "From April 17 to 26 we conducted a large, 50 state survey, the results of which are presented in this report. The first section of the report looks at the nation as a whole while the second section focuses on individual states and comparisons across states. [...] We surveyed 22,912 individuals across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. The survey was conducted on 17-26 April 2020 by PureSpectrum via an online, nonprobability sample, with state-level representative quotas for race/ethnicity, age and gender. In addition to balancing on these dimensions, we reweighted our data using the same demographic characteristics. In our discussion below, we omit mentioning states with a sample size of less than 275: Alaska, Montana, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Wyoming, and the District of Columbia. However, we include these states in the summary tables below."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Rutgers University; Harvard University

Lazer, David; Baum, Matthew A., 1965-; Ognyanova, Katherine . . .

2020-04-30
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #19: Pandemic-Related Factors Associated with Candidate Preferences

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From the Document: "The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic and the associated economic fallout is the defining issue of the 2020 presidential election. [...] In this report, we provide preliminary evidence regarding one aspect of the relationship between the ongoing pandemic and the 2020 election. Specifically, we ask about the degree to which vote choice is associated with attitudes and behaviors regarding the pandemic, and whether the pandemic may be making voters who would otherwise be likely to support Donald Trump for re-election reluctant to do so. Throughout, our analysis is restricted to likely participants in the two-party contest this November - that is, respondents who say they are registered to vote, are very likely to vote in the 2020 election or have already voted, and are supporting Joe Biden, Donald Trump, or are undecided."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Green, Jon; Lazer, David; Baum, Matthew A., 1965- . . .

2020-10-30
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #20: Public Opinion Around Federal and State Reactions to COVID-19

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From the Document: "In every month, April through October of 2020, we surveyed individuals in every state about how federal and state governments are reacting to the pandemic. We found a remarkably consistent picture of public opinion: respondents prefer state governments over the federal government when it comes to COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]. Out of 8 waves in 50 states & DC - a total of 408 surveys at the state level - in 402 state-level surveys more people in the state felt the state government was reacting 'about right' to the COVID-19 outbreak as compared to the federal government; and only 6 times did people in a state choose the federal government over their state government."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Quintana, Alexi; Green, Jon . . .

2020-10-30
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #22: Executive Approval Update

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From the Document: "Despite the headwinds confronting the country in facing COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019], approval of most governors' and President Trump's COVID-19 response did not change greatly between September and October in our survey. President Trump's approval has ticked up a point to 35%, which is still problematically low approval for the most salient issue in the 2020 election by far (in 49 out of 50 states, Alaska being the one exception, COVID-19 is ranked as 'the most important problem'). More generally, after suffering a decline in the spring, the President's approval rating has been flatline around his October rating of 35%. [...] We note that the most recent survey was conducted from October 2nd to 25th. We are in the midst of a large spike of cases in the US, and with enormous geographic variation. The number of daily cases has roughly doubled since we began the survey and has increased by 15% since it concluded. Thus, the question we will address in our next executive approval report is how the current spike in cases will have affected presidential and gubernatorial approval."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Quintana, Alexi; Green, Jon . . .

2020-10
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #24: The Trajectory of Health-Related Behaviors in Massachusetts

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From the Document: "This report summarizes the trajectory of individual behaviors in Massachusetts related to the spread of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] - that is, the way individual behavior has changed over the past 7 months in the Commonwealth. These summaries are based on a large-scale survey that our team has regularly conducted in all 50 states since April of this year."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Santillana, Mauricio; Perlis, Roy H. . . .

2020-11-13
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #29: Election Fairness and Trust in Institutions

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From the Document: "Between November 3 and 30, we surveyed 24,019 individuals across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. The survey was conducted by PureSpectrum via an online, nonprobability sample, with state-level representative quotas for race/ethnicity, age, and gender (for methodological details on the other waves, see covidstates.org). In addition to balancing on these dimensions, we reweighted our data using demographic characteristics to match the U.S. population with respect to race/ethnicity, age, gender, education, and living in urban, suburban, or rural areas. This was the latest in a series of surveys we have been conducting since April 2020, examining attitudes and behaviors regarding COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] in the United States."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Ognyanova, Katherine; Lazer, David; Baum, Matthew A., 1965- . . .

2020-12-11
COVID States Project: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #26: Trajectory of COVID-19-Related Behaviors

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From the Document: "The current state of the COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic in the United States is dire, with circumstances in the Upper Midwest particularly grim. In contrast, multiple countries around the world have shown that temporary changes in human behavior and consistent precautions, such as effective testing, contact tracing, and isolation, can slow transmission of COVID-19, allowing local economies to remain open and societal activities to approach normalcy as of today. These include island countries such as New Zealand, Taiwan, Iceland and Australia, and continental countries such as Norway, Uruguay, Thailand, Finland, and South Korea. These successes demonstrate that coordinated action to change behavior can control the pandemic. In this report, we evaluate how the human behaviors that have been shown to inhibit the spread of COVID-19 have evolved across the US since April, 2020. Our report is based on surveys that the COVID States Project has been conducting approximately every month since April in all 50 US states plus the District of Columbia. We address four primary questions: 1) What are the national trends in social distancing behaviors and mask wearing since April? 2) What are the trends among particular population subsets? 3) What are the trends across individual states plus DC? 4) What is the relationship, at the state level, between social distancing behaviors and mask wearing with the current prevalence of COVID-19?"

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Santillana, Mauricio; Perlis, Roy H. . . .

2020-11-27
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #28: Public Support for Measures Aimed at Curbing COVID-19 in Massachusetts

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From the Document: "Over 10 survey waves, we polled 139,230 individuals across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. The data were collected between April and November 2020 by PureSpectrum via an online, nonprobability sample, with state-level representative quotas for race/ethnicity, age, and gender. In addition to balancing on these dimensions, we reweighted our data using demographic characteristics to match the U.S. population with respect to race/ethnicity, age, gender, education, and living in urban, suburban, or rural areas. For this report, we focused on data from Massachusetts: a total of 919 respondents polled between October 1 and November 28. The data was weighed for demographics to match the population of the state."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Baum, Matthew A., 1965-; Ognyanova, Katherine; Uslu, Ata A. . . .

2020-12-04
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #27: Trajectory of COVID-19-Related Behaviors in Illinois

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From the Document: "The number of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] cases in Illinois has risen sharply over the last two months, from about 2,000 new cases a day in late September to 10,000 or so currently. In this report we evaluate whether there have been significant changes in the behaviors that facilitate the spread of the disease. The COVID States Project has been conducting a 50-state survey roughly once a month since April about attitudes and behaviors around COVID-19. Here we focus on public-health related behaviors that facilitate/inhibit the spread of the disease. It has become apparent that behaviors of particular importance are (1) those which bring people into indoor proximity; and (2) mask wearing."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Druckman, James N., 1971-; Lin, Jennifer, 1974-; Perlis, Roy H. . . .

2020-11-27
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey: Report #11: Perceptions of School Reopening Safety in the United States

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From the Document: "Parents of school-age children thus confront difficult decisions about their children's education - decisions that will hinge on whether they believe schools can be made safe. We surveyed 19,058 adults in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia for 2 weeks beginning July 10 and ending July 26, asking about their perception of the safety of returning to school. We also asked a subset of respondents whether they support reopening schools for in-person classes in the fall. We further aimed to understand whether these comfort levels vary depending on rates of infection in their community, and on other attitudes about COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019]."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Ognyanova, Katherine; Baum, Matthew A., 1965- . . .

2020-08-18
State of the Nation: A 50-State Covid-19 Survey Report #16: Partisan Differences in Intention to Vote by Mail

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From the Document: "The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic has led many election administrators, as well as voters, to reconsider the manner in which votes will be cast during the 2020 general election. With many voters wary of waiting in line in person beside strangers on Election Day, registrars around the country are preparing for a far higher share of ballots to be cast by mail than ever before. The best available academic research suggests that holding elections entirely by mail slightly increases turnout, but does not advantage either major political party. [...] Here we evaluate three questions: [1] 'How many people report that they will vote by mail in each state?' [2] 'What will be the difference in candidate choice between those who vote on the day of the election versus those who vote by mail?' [and 3] 'What is the potential shift in the margin between Trump and Biden from the day of voting to a count that incorporates votes received by mail?' To evaluate these questions, we use the most recent two waves of our 50-state survey, which included a question asking 37,659 respondents (26,838 among them likely voters) how likely they were to vote by absentee or mail-in ballot."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Baum, Matthew A., 1965-; Quintana, Alexi . . .

2020-10-09
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #18: COVID-19 Fake News on Twitter

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From the Executive Summary: "The COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] pandemic created an unprecedented disruption of everyday life in America that has been exacerbated by the infodemic of COVID-19 misinformation spread on social media. In this report, we examine the tweets of 1.6 million registered American voters to ask: 'who is sharing COVID-19 fake news and what are they sharing?' We find that older people and Republicans are more likely to share URLs from fake news web domains. In addition, we show that the most shared fake news web domain is The Gateway Pundit, which received far more shares than even the second most popular fake news domain."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Quintana, Alexi; Joseph, Kenneth . . .

2020-10-21
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey: Report #10: The Pandemic and the Protests

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From the Document: "The spring and early summer of 2020 witnessed historically large protests against racism and police violence, as well as a surge of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] in parts of the country that had not been hit hard by the pandemic earlier. In this report, we evaluate the scale of the protests, the question of whether and to what extent the pandemic might have created favorable conditions for the protests to occur, and what the correlation is between the scale of the protests in particular states and the subsequent spread of COVID-19."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Ognyanova, Katherine; Baum, Matthew A., 1965- . . .

2020-08-10
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #17: COVID-19 Test Result Times

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From the Key Takeaways: "[1] Average testing times have fallen since April (from 4.0 days to 2.7 days in September); [2] Across all months, Black respondents wait almost an entire day more than white respondents for their test results (4.4 days to 3.5 days, on average); [3] In our September and August waves, the average respondent waited 6.2 days between seeking a test and receiving test results; [and 4] Only 56% of those who tested positive for COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] report being contacted as part of a contact tracing attempt[.]"

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Chwe, Hanyu; Quintana, Alexi; Lazer, David . . .

2020-10-16
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey: Report #5: Approval of Executive Performance During COVID-19

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From the Document: "The initial response to a crisis typically depends on the executive branch of government, because they may act more rapidly than legislative and judicial branches. For COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] in particular, the focal decision-makers have been the president and the governors of the 50 states. In the eyes of the public, how have the president and governors responded? [...] First, the average governor has experienced a 10-point decline in approval from late April to late June, and in only 5 states--Hawaii, Michigan, New Jersey, South Dakota and Vermont--have governors' approval ratings increased since late April. In the remaining states, approval has declined. Second, the President began (at the outset of our series in late April) with a relatively low approval rating, below that of the governor in all 50 states, and has declined further--by 8 points on average. Only one governor--Governor Doug Ducey of Arizona-- now has an approval rating in their state lower than that of the president."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Ognyanova, Katherine; Baum, Matthew A., 1965- . . .

2020-07-07
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #4

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From the Document: "Even as all 50 states continue to move towards full reopening, Americans remain more cautious than their governors. Only 15% of survey respondents say that the country should be reopened for business right away, a 4 percentage point increase from the response to that question in early May. More than half of those polled (57%) are in favor of waiting at least a month or more before resuming business activity."

Rutgers University; Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy; Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.) . . .

Lazer, David; Baum, Matthew A., 1965-; Perlis, Roy H. . . .

2020-06-07
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #3: Support for Vote by Mail

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From the Document: "A strong majority of Americans support making it easier to vote by mail (VBM). Three-in-five (60%) Americans support making it easier to vote by mail this November, while only 16% oppose (24% neither support nor oppose). Majorities of Americans in all but four states -- Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Wyoming* -- support making VBM easier. At the other extreme, over 70% of Americans in four states (Oregon, Washington, California, Colorado) and the District of Columbia*, support making VBM easier."

Rutgers University; Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy; Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.) . . .

Lazer, David; Baum, Matthew A., 1965-; Perlis, Roy H. . . .

2020-05-27
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #2

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From the Document: "Americans are in less of a hurry to reopen than their governors. Despite the movement toward economic reopening in all 50 states, we see little evidence that Americans are clamoring to speed up the reopening process. Overall, we found only a five percentage point increase from our prior survey wave in late April in the percentage of Americans preferring that the economy reopen 'immediately.' A sizable majority (60%) of Americans continue to prefer that the country wait at least four more weeks prior to reopening."

Rutgers University; Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy; Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.) . . .

Lazer, David; Baum, Matthew A., 1965-; Perlis, Roy H. . . .

2020-05-22
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey: Report #6: Update on the Approval of Executive Performance During COVID-19

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From the Document: "The latest update to our executive approval series reveals a mix of continuity and change. The most obvious difference in the circumstances confronting the nation's executives in the latest wave (July 10-26, 2020, N=19,052) compared to the prior wave (June 12-28, 2020) is that far more states are seeing increases in COVID [coronavirus disease] cases than in early June. [...] Across much of the South we see a tight coupling between approval of the president's handling of the pandemic and approval of the governor's performance during the pandemic. The exceptions -- where governors retain notably higher support for their management of the pandemic than the president (by 10 points or more) -- are, in all but two cases (West Virginia, Delaware), either Republican-leaning or 'purple' states with Democratic governors (North Carolina, Virginia, Kentucky, and Louisiana), or in one case a Democratic-leaning state with a Republican governor (Maryland). [...] That said, the overall trends reported in late June remain similar. [...] Overall, America's governors continue to enjoy a 19 percentage point advantage over the president in public support for their handling of the pandemic (51% vs 32%)."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Baum, Matthew A., 1965-; Lazer, David; Ognyanova, Katherine . . .

2020-07-29
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey: Report #9: Will Americans Vaccinate Themselves and Their Children Against COVID-19?

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From the Document: "We surveyed 19,058 individuals across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. The survey was conducted on 10-26 July 2020 by PureSpectrum via an online, nonprobability sample, with state-level representative quotas for race/ethnicity, age, and gender (for methodological details on the other waves, see covidstates.org). In addition to balancing on these dimensions, we reweighted our data using demographic characteristics to match the U.S. population with respect to race/ethnicity, age, gender, education, and living in urban, suburban, or rural areas. This was the seventh in a series of surveys we have been conducting since April 2020, examining attitudes and behaviors regarding COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] in the United States."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Perlis, Roy H.; Lazer, David; Ognyanova, Katherine . . .

2020-08-04
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey: Report #8: Failing the Test: Waiting Times for COVID Diagnostic Tests Across the U.S.

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From the Document: "Rapid turnaround of testing for COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] infection is essential to containing the pandemic. Ideally, test results would be available the same day. Our findings indicate that the United States is not currently performing testing with nearly enough speed. In our large (19,058 respondents) national survey, conducted between July 10 and 26, we asked whether respondents had been tested for COVID-19 and how long they had waited to get results. Our finding: 37% of those who had been tested by nasal swab received results within 2 days, and the average wait time was 4.1 days; with 31% of tests taking more than 4 days, and 10% 10 days or more. Further, there are few signs that turnaround times are diminishing. For individuals who responded that their last test had been in April, they had waited on average 4.2 days to get results; and for individuals tested in July, 4.1 days."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Santillana, Mauricio; Perlis, Roy H. . . .

2020-08-03
State of the Nation: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey: Report #7: Update on Vote by Mail

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From the Document: "Overall, support for voting by mail is quite high, with 64% of likely voters in our survey supporting making it easier to vote by mail, and only 23% opposing. Similarly, more Americans who say they plan to vote in 2020 support than oppose universal extension of vote by mail. A total of 66% of likely voters report that they would support giving every American the right to vote by mail in November, with 22% opposing."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Lazer, David; Ognyanova, Katherine; Baum, Matthew A., 1965- . . .

2020-07-30
COVID States Project: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey Report #41: The Trajectory of Health-Related Behaviors in New Jersey

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From the Document: "New Jersey is similar to other states in the northeast, in that it had its initial spike in COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] cases during March and April 2020, with a second wave that peaked in December 2020 and January 2021. This report presents an overview of key trends in the behavior of New Jersey residents since the first months of the pandemic, with respect to following health guidelines aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19. [...] Residents of New Jersey closely followed the social distancing guidelines in the spring of 2020, but progressively relaxed their adherence to health recommendations over the summer and early fall of 2020. People once again became more careful about social distancing as COVID-19 case counts increased towards the end of 2020. Our most recent data indicate that as case numbers decreased in 2021, behaviors relaxed as well."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics, and Public Policy; Harvard Medical School . . .

Ognyanova, Katherine; Druckman, James N., 1971-; Lazer, David . . .

2021-03
COVID States Project: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey, Report #40: COVID-19 Vaccine Attitudes Among Healthcare Workers

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From the Executive Summary: "'In this report, we examine the demographic correlates of vaccination, vaccine hesitancy, and vaccine resistance among the subset of 1,797 respondents in the COVID [coronavirus disease] states survey who indicated that they are healthcare workers. We find that education, income, gender, race/ethnicity, and partisanship are strong predictors of vaccination rates recorded thus far, as well as of vaccine hesitancy and resistance.' Healthcare workers represent a microcosm of US society, and a consequential one. They are polarized in terms of income and education, ranging from physicians with extensive postgraduate education, to cleaning staff with less than a high school education. Healthcare workers also have taken a disproportionate brunt of the national response to COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019], in terms of the physical and emotional labor to care for millions of sick people; to bid goodbye to hundreds of thousands; and to confront, by the nature of their work, the increased risks of exposure to the virus. They have also been among the first wave of recipients of COVID-19 vaccinations; and as such, they are doubly important. First, they may be predictive of what is to come in the rest of the US's vaccination campaign. Healthcare workers represent the first diverse population that has the opportunity to get vaccinated. As such, their responses regarding vaccine willingness are more proximate and less hypothetical than they are with our other survey respondents. Second, they may directly affect the willingness [hyperlink] of other Americans to be vaccinated, by dint of their high perceived credibility regarding issues of health."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Rutgers University; Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) . . .

Lazer, David; Perlis, Roy H.; Ognyanova, Katherine . . .

2021-02
COVID States Project: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey, Report #30: Economic Hardships Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic

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From the Key Findings: "[1] Parents with children at home are more likely than respondents without children at home to have experienced all five economic hardships, while women with kids at home are more likely than men with kids at home to have experienced four of the five hardships. The overall gaps range from a low of 4 percentage points for eviction from their home (6% for parents vs. 2% for non-parents), to highs of 11 points for taking pay cuts (26% vs. 17%) and being unable to make a rent or mortgage payment (21% vs. 10%)[.] [2] Economic hardships are fairly evenly distributed across partisan groups and regions of the country. [3] Respondents who report having had COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] (whether diagnosed by a medical professional or otherwise) are more likely than respondents who report not having had had COVID-19 to have suffered a series of five economic hardships we included in the survey, including losing a job, being evicted from their home, being unable to pay rent or their mortgage, taking a pay cut, or having to cut back on work to take care of a child. [4] Hispanics are more likely than other racial/ethnic groups to have experienced all five economic hardships. [5] We find fairly wide variations across the 50 states in the percentages of residents having experienced economic hardships, and no consistent geographic patterns. COVID-related hardships appear to be generally widespread across the country."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Harvard Medical School; Rutgers University . . .

Baum, Matthew A., 1965-; Lin, Jennifer; Lazer, David . . .

2020-12-17
COVID States Project: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey, Report #36: Evaluation of COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Strategies

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From the Document: "This report outlines the current state of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] vaccine hesitancy (defined as preferring to delay vaccination) and resistance (defined as not wanting to take the vaccine at any point), as well as the results from two experiments designed to test strategies for increasing Americans' willingness to take the vaccine when it's available to them. We evaluate the results of two experiments testing different communication strategies to increase people's willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Key findings are that a variety of 'messages' are effective for reducing vaccine hesitancy and resistance, while 'messengers' are less effective and - in the case of partisan messengers - have the potential to 'increase' resistance among political out-groups. The most effective strategies evoked scientists and people's own doctors as endorsers of vaccination. We found, also, that messages evoking harm reduction and 'people you know' were more effective in counties where the virus is spreading more quickly."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Rutgers University; Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) . . .

Green, Jon; Lazer, David; Ognyanova, Katherine . . .

2021-01-25
COVID States Project: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey, Report #35: Public Attitudes Towards COVID-19 Vaccines

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From the Executive Summary: "We present a variety of descriptive results on attitudes and beliefs regarding COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] vaccines. We find a notable consensus across population subgroups regarding order of prioritization for receiving vaccines, which roughly aligns with current policies. We additionally find that while there are generally positive attitudes and beliefs regarding vaccines, there are also some negative attitudes and misbeliefs that are especially common within certain demographics (political independents and, to a lesser extent, Republicans; Black respondents; and individuals ages 25-44). The reported results are based on data collected from 24,682 people between December 16, 2020 and January 10, 2021. For these descriptive analyses, we apply survey weights using national benchmarks for race, gender, age, education, Census region, and urbanicity."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Rutgers University; Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) . . .

Green, Jon; Lazer, David; Ognyanova, Katherine . . .

2021-01-25
COVID States Project: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey, Report #39: Public Attitudes Towards the Storming of the Capitol Building

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From the Document: "This was the latest in a series of surveys we have been conducting since April 2020, examining attitudes and behaviors regarding COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] in the United States. [...] The 2020 election produced two distinct perceived realities for the United States public. The first perceived reality holds that the election was conducted fairly, and that Joe Biden won. Individuals who hold this vision of reality feel their votes were counted accurately, and that the events of January 6th [hyperlink] were repugnant. This is also the version of reality for 60-70% of the US population. This reality is documented by court cases, our government officials (Republican and Democratic) in charge of administering the election, and the credible news media. The second vision of reality holds that the election was essentially corrupt--driven, in particular, by illegal mail-in ballots, noncitizen voting, and voting machine fraud. In this perceived reality, Biden is a usurper to the presidency. Further, the people who stormed the Capitol had a point, although the worst actions were taken by individuals affiliated with Antifa activists masquerading as Trump supporters. This is the expressed reality of former President Trump, certain Republican leaders, a subset of conservative media, and certain corners of the social media ecosystem. This is also the reality for 25-30% of the US population, and roughly half of Republicans. These two perceived realities are not created equal. The facts, as presented by the fact sorting institutions of the government and media, unambiguously support the first."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Rutgers University; Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) . . .

Lazer, David; Baum, Matthew A., 1965-; Ognyanova, Katherine . . .

2021-02-15
COVID States Project: A 50-State COVID-19 Survey, Report #31: Update on the Trajectory of Health-Related Behaviors

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From the Document: "Since April 2020, the COVID [coronavirus disease] States Project has been surveying respondents regarding social distancing behaviors and adherence to health recommendations more generally. Our November report [hyperlink], looking at the data from April to November, with a partial exception of mask wearing, found a steady relaxation of these behaviors over time. In this report, we update our November results, finding that this trend has partially reversed, perhaps due to the surge of COVID-19 [coronavirus disease 2019] cases in the last two months. Mask wearing reached its all-time high in our December/January survey, and social distancing behaviors have substantially increased since October (though still far from April levels)."

Northeastern University (Boston, Mass.); Rutgers University; Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) . . .

Lazer, David; Quintana, Alexi; Perlis, Roy H. . . .

2021-01-15

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