Partisan reasoning in a high stakes environment: Assessing partisan informational gaps on COVID-19

Abstract

Using a survey conducted in July 2020, we establish a divide in the news sources partisans prefer for information about the COVID-19 pandemic and observe partisan disagreements in beliefs about the virus. These divides persist when respondents face financial costs for incorrectly answering questions. This supports a view in which the informational divisions revealed in surveys on COVID-19 are genuine differences of opinion, not artifacts of insincere cheerleading. The implication is that efforts to correct misinformation about the virus should focus on changing sincere beliefs while also accounting for information search preferences that impede exposure to correctives among those holding misinformed views.