Shana Gadarian piece on anxiety and trust in experts published in Washington Post

Gadarian piece on anxiety and trust in experts published in Washington Post

Mar 20, 2020

This is who Americans trust about coronavirus information

Bethany Albertson & Shana Kushner Gadarian

The New York Times, March 2020

Shana Kushner Gadarian

Political Science Department

Campbell Public Affairs Institute

COVID-19

The New York Times

Shana Kushner Gadarian

In the article "This is who Americans trust about coronavirus information," published in the Washington Post, Associate Professor of Political Science Shana Gadarian and co-author Bethany Albertson refer to their research on how political anxiety affects learning, trust and policy support in various situations, including public health crises. The authors found that people who are anxious about health usually put their trust in experts.

Gadarian was also quoted in the New York Times article "Red vs. Blue on Coronavirus Concern: The Gap Is Still Big but Closing." "People want expert actors; they don’t want partisan actors in times of crisis," says Gadarian. "What’s different now than in our studies is that our current president has been undercutting messages from the C.D.C. and other health experts about, first, whether or not this is a crisis, whether you should be anxious, and, second, what we should be doing."

03/20/20