The curve not taken: Effects of COVID-19 international comparison news

Seon Woo Kim, Martina Santia, Raymond J. Pingree, Ayla Oden, Kirill Bryanov, Jessica Wyers

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

International news can inform people not only about what is happening in other countries, but also about how their own country could benefit from policies that have proved successful elsewhere. Specifically, international policy comparison news, or news that compares the policies of two or more countries on the same issue, is a potentially important but underutilized and understudied form of news content. We use an experiment to test effects of exposure to news comparing the COVID-19 pandemic policies of the U.S. versus South Korea, and find that this increases knowledge of policy differences between the two countries, support for adopting similar policies in the U.S., presidential blame for the severity of the pandemic in the U.S., and trust in health experts. On most outcomes, these effects did not vary across political party lines, a particularly encouraging result given the polarized nature of policy debates on this issue.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article numbere0271041
JournalPLoS ONE
Volume17
Issue number8 August
DOIs
StatePublished - Aug 2022
Externally publishedYes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General

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