The Effect of Fox News on Health Behavior During COVID-19
@article{Ash2020TheEO, title={The Effect of Fox News on Health Behavior During COVID-19}, author={Elliott Ash and Sergio Galletta and Sergio Galletta and Dominik Hangartner and Dominik Hangartner and Yotam Margalit and Matteo Pinna}, journal={SSRN Electronic Journal}, year={2020} }
In the early weeks of the 2020 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Fox News Channel advanced a skeptical narrative that downplayed the risks posed by the virus. We find that this narrative had significant consequences: in localities with higher Fox News viewership---exogenous due to random variation in channel positioning---people were less likely to adopt behaviors geared toward social distancing (e.g., staying at home) and consumed less goods in preparation (e.g., cleaning products, hand…
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