Federico Gives Insight to Recent Study

A recent study published by graduate students at the University of Southern California found that Fox News viewers are slightly less likely to use COVID-19 safety precautions than CNN viewers. Christopher Federico, PhD, professor in the Departments of Political Science and Psychology at the University of Minnesota, provided insight into these findings in a CNN article titled, “Fox News viewers use fewer Covid-19 safety precautions than CNN viewers, study finds.”

Federico states that at most this study points to a correlation between news preferences and frequency of infection-mitigating behaviors. Although this suggests that various news sources may influence behavior, this can not be concluded as the study was observational and thus can not establish a causal relationship. However, Federico did add that there is strong evidence from other studies that use more conclusive methodologies that exposure to Fox news does have a causal effect on certain behaviors such as voting.

Composed by Flora Pollack, communications assistant.