Gadarian speaks to Australian Broadcasting Corporation about partisanship and people's behaviors

September 18, 2020

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Shana Kushner Gadarian

Political Science Department

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

Political Parties

U.S. Elections

United States

Australian Broadcasting Corporation

Shana Kushner Gadarian

"We've been talking to the same [3,000] Americans since early March, every six weeks or so," says Shana Gadarian, associate professor of political science. "We had a sense that people would vary on policy beliefs based on their partisanship. What was unexpected was the big, huge difference in health behaviors — like the change in how much they're washing their hands and whether or not they stopped going to social events and whether they were staying home more," she says. Americans were "using their partisanship as the top way to screen new information and decide what to do." Read more in the ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) article, "Coronavirus is the 2020 US election issue. But it's not changing the way Americans see Donald Trump." 09/18/20