TY - JOUR

T1 - The virus of fear

T2 - The Political Impact of Ebola in the United States

AU - Campante, Filipe

AU - Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio

AU - Durante, Ruben

PY - 2024/1/1

Y1 - 2024/1/1

N2 - We study how public anxiety over the threat of a disease outbreak can affect voter behavior by looking at the Ebola scare that hit the United States in 2014. Exploiting timing and locations of the four cases diagnosed in the country, we show that heightened concern about Ebola led to a lower Democratic vote share and lower turn-out, despite no evidence of a general anti-incumbent effect (including President Obama). Voters displayed increasingly conservative atti-tudes on immigration, but not on other ideologically charged issues. Our findings indicate that emotional reactions can have a strong electoral impact, mediated by issues plausibly associated with the specific triggering factor.

AB - We study how public anxiety over the threat of a disease outbreak can affect voter behavior by looking at the Ebola scare that hit the United States in 2014. Exploiting timing and locations of the four cases diagnosed in the country, we show that heightened concern about Ebola led to a lower Democratic vote share and lower turn-out, despite no evidence of a general anti-incumbent effect (including President Obama). Voters displayed increasingly conservative atti-tudes on immigration, but not on other ideologically charged issues. Our findings indicate that emotional reactions can have a strong electoral impact, mediated by issues plausibly associated with the specific triggering factor.

U2 - 10.1257/app.20220030

DO - 10.1257/app.20220030

M3 - Journal article

VL - 16

SP - 480

EP - 509

JO - American Economic Journal: Applied Economics

JF - American Economic Journal: Applied Economics

SN - 1945-7782

IS - 1

ER -