A significant challenge in the United States’ response to COVID-19 continues to be wide variation in the extent to which individuals believe the virus is a credible health threat and are willing to undertake measures to protect personal and public health. In this study, data were collected from a national sample of 1141 participants from the United States to examine how beliefs and behavioral responses to COVID-19 have been shaped by sociopolitical characteristics. The relationships between social predictors; perceived severity, knowledge, and fear of the virus; and health behaviors were tested using path analysis. Social characteristics significantly predicted perceived severity, knowledge, and fear, as well as health behaviors, even after controlling for an objective indicator of the risk of contracting the virus. Our findings suggest that perceptions and knowledge of the virus, especially believing that the virus poses a serious threat to one’s individual health, are important determinants of behavior, but also that perceptions and knowledge are strongly driven by social and cultural factors above and beyond political affiliation.

美国应对 COVID-19 的一个重大挑战仍然是个人认为该病毒是一种可靠的健康威胁并愿意采取措施保护个人和公共健康的程度差异很大。在这项研究中，从美国的 1141 名参与者的全国样本中收集了数据，以研究社会政治特征如何塑造了对 COVID-19 的信念和行为反应。社会预测因素之间的关系；对病毒的严重程度、知识和恐惧；使用路径分析测试健康行为。即使在控制了感染病毒风险的客观指标之后，社会特征也显着预测了感知的严重性、知识和恐惧以及健康行为。