Partisan solutions for partisan problems: electoral threat and Republicans’ openness to the COVID-19 vaccine

Abstract

Attitudinal differences among partisan identifiers are commonplace in the American political landscape. As a prominent example, group identities such as Republican party identification increasingly inform attitudes against vaccination. What kinds of frames can counter this powerful influence of partisanship on citizens’ attitudes? Recent research suggests that, in some cases, leveraging – rather than circumventing – partisan motivations may serve to reduce attitudinal differences, including differences in attitudes toward vaccination. We apply this logic to the partisan gap in openness to the COVID-19 vaccine specifically. Using this important issue as a test case, we theorize that partisans’ psychological aversion to electoral loss presents a unique opportunity for the deployment of framing messages designed to increase vaccine openness. We therefore analyze the effects of a “Shot to Win” (STW) message, which frames vaccination as a means of ensuring that a party’s members remain healthy enough to vote and defeat the opposing party in upcoming elections. Results of a pre-registered survey experiment provide evidence that STW messaging increases Republican identifiers’ openness to COVID-19 vaccination across a variety of attitudinal and behavioral outcomes. More broadly, these results exemplify how partisan identity might be effectively leveraged in service of the public interest.