Kristin Lunz Trujillo

University of South Carolina | USC · Department of Political Science

Even amid the unprecedented public health challenges attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, opposition to vaccinating against the novel coronavirus has been both prevalent and politically contentious in American public life. In this paper, we theorize that attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination might "spill over" to shape attitudes toward “post-pand...

Previous work suggests rural identity stems from direct experience living in a rural area, and that categorical group membership occurs before social identification. However, some U.S. survey takers not living in a rural area indicate that being rural is part of their identity. Using an original survey of American adults, as well as 2019 and 2020 A...

Existing studies on the contemporary U.S. urban-rural divide have neglected its potential role in non-voting political participation. Theoretically, there are mixed expectations: for example, higher social capital in rural areas, alongside a generally older population, suggest rural areas should have greater political participation. Conversely, low...

A potential explanation for the U.S. urban-rural political divide is a definition of rural consciousness comprised of three subdimensions: a feeling that ruralites are underrepresented in decision-making (“Representation”) and that their way of life is disrespected (“Way of Life”) – both symbolic concerns – and a more materialistic concern that rur...

Anti-intellectualism-a distrust of intellectuals and experts-has had a significant political presence in the U.S. and globally, especially in recent years. Anti-intellectualism drives support for phenomena such as populism, a rejection of scientific consensus, and health and science misinformation endorsement. Therefore, discovering what drives som...

Background. A highly pathogenic strain of avian influenza (H5N1, or “bird flu”) began circulating across poultry farms worldwide in 2020. While the virus has been transmitted to mammals and humans in the past, media attention to the potential impact of H5N1 on human health following the documentation of unprecedented transmission between mammals in...

American scientists are notably unrepresentative of the population. The disproportionately small number of scientists who are women, Black, Hispanic or Latino, from rural areas, religious, and from lower socioeconomic backgrounds has consequences. Specifically, it means that, relative to their counterparts, individuals who identify as such are more...

Conventional wisdom surrounding President Joe Biden’s unprecedented decision to exit the 2024 Presidential race suggests that he came to view his would-be nomination as detrimental for the Democratic Party; both with respect to turnout, as well as the success of “down-ballot” candidates for federal and state-wide office. Whether or not conventional...

Importance Trust in physicians and hospitals has been associated with achieving public health goals, but the increasing politicization of public health policies during the COVID-19 pandemic may have adversely affected such trust. Objective To characterize changes in US adults’ trust in physicians and hospitals over the course of the COVID-19 pande...

Americans' distrust in government and science are declining with potentially deleterious effects on democracy and society. Understanding sources of declining trust is therefore imperative. Theoretically, distrust either arises from concerns about immorality or wrongdoing, or from pessimism about competence. These two causes motivate different react...

Democracies require militaries that protect citizen well-being without threatening to overthrow the government or otherwise jeopardize public safety. The military should therefore be firmly under the command of civilian elected leaders, playing a minimal role in the political process. Previous research examines whether the public thinks such bounda...

Even amid the unprecedented public health challenges attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic, opposition to vaccinating against the novel coronavirus has been both prevalent and politically contentious in American public life. In this paper, we theorize that attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination might “spill over” to shape attitudes toward “postpande...

Previous work suggests rural identity often stems from direct experience living in a rural area, and that categorical group membership occurs before social identification. Puzzlingly, however, some U.S. survey takers not living in a rural area indicate that being rural is part of their identity. Using ANES data from 2020 (N = 8280) and 2019 (N = 31...

Scientific information is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in science can help decision-makers act based on the best available evidence, especially during crises such as climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic 1,2. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low pub...

Science is integral to society because it can inform individual, government, corporate, and civil society decision-making on issues such as climate change. Yet, public distrust and populist sentiment may challenge the relationship between science and society. To help researchers analyse the science society nexus across different cultural contexts,...

Scientific information is crucial for evidence-based decision-making. Public trust in science can help decision-makers act based on the best available evidence, especially during crises such as climate change or the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in recent years the epistemic authority of science has been challenged, causing concerns about low public...

Critical Race Theory (CRT) has become a flashpoint of elite political discord, yet how Americans actually perceive CRT is unclear. We theorize that Republican elites utilized a strong framing strategy to re-define CRT as an “empty signifier” representing broader racial and cultural grievances. Using a survey and a pre-registered experiment among U....

Context: To address the considerable burden of mental health need in the United States, Congress passed the National Suicide Hotline Designation Act in 2020. The Act rebranded the national suicide prevention lifeline as 988 – a 3-digit number akin to 911 for individuals to call in the case of a mental health emergency. Surprisingly little is known...

Importance The COVID-19 pandemic has been notable for the widespread dissemination of misinformation regarding the virus and appropriate treatment. Objective To quantify the prevalence of non–evidence-based treatment for COVID-19 in the US and the association between such treatment and endorsement of misinformation as well as lack of trust in phys...

Importance Marked elevation in levels of depressive symptoms compared with historical norms have been described during the COVID-19 pandemic, and understanding the extent to which these are associated with diminished in-person social interaction could inform public health planning for future pandemics or other disasters. Objective To describe the...

Rural residents are typically construed as being more conservative than urban residents. Is this true, or do rural residents carry unique interests from Republicans or conservatives? Using the 2020 ANES, we compare responses from 22 national issues by interacting urban and rural residency with Republican and Democrat identification. We find that is...

What are the relative contributions of stereotypes about the race and deservingness of welfare recipients to Americans’ opinions on welfare? A recent study employing a conjoint-experimental method finds that Americans’ stereotypes of welfare recipients as undeserving drive negative attitudes toward welfare, while stereotypes of welfare recipients a...

Context: The CDC's ability to respond to communicable disease threats has recently met significant political and legal opposition. We (a) unpack the influence of political ideology on support for CDC authority, and (b) experimentally assess whether highlighting its role in responding to health threats might bolster CDC support. Methods: We field...

The mental health of children and adolescents has been the focus of two recent reports from the US Surgeon General’s office. The first noted the prevalence of distress among young Americans and the need to invest in more systematic and accessible care. The second, in early May, addressed the impact of loneliness on mental health, recognizing that t...

In the wake of an increasing number of mass shootings and gun-related incidents in the US, public discourse on gun control has intensified, leading to a polarized political environment where consensus on policy reform remains elusive. In this paper, we argue that an overlooked factor influencing Americans' firearm policy preferences is rural identi...

Researchers, media outlets, and political actors have expressed ongoing concerns about the spread of misinformation in the areas of health and politics. In past reports, we have discussed the prevalence and demographics of COVID-19 misinformation, its link to vaccination rates, its dependence on social media news consumption, and its shifts over ti...

In our latest survey, 24% of Americans report levels of depression that would typically trigger a referral for evaluation and treatment. Among 18-24-year-olds, that number jumps to 44%, including 24% of 18-24-year-olds meeting the criteria for moderate to severe or severe depression.• The rate of depression among 18-24-year-olds is slightly down ov...

Are issue attitudes of rural residents aligned with those of Republicans in the United States? Previous research demonstrates an urban-rural divide in issue attitudes whereby rural residents tend to adopt more conservative policy positions and urban residents tend to adopt more liberal ones in the US. In this paper, we investigate whether this noti...

Importance: Little is known about the functional correlates of post-COVID-19 condition (PCC), also known as long COVID, particularly the relevance of neurocognitive symptoms. Objective: To characterize prevalence of unemployment among individuals who did, or did not, develop PCC after acute infection. Design, setting, and participants: This su...

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have studied how Americans' attitudes toward health experts influence their health behaviors and policy opinions. Fewer, however, consider the potential gap between individual and expert opinion about COVID-19, and how that might shape health attitudes and behavior. This omission is notable, as discrepa...

Key Takeaways1. Comparing our October 2022 survey conducted immediately before Elon Musk purchased Twitter to our December 2022-January 2023 survey, the percentage of Americans who reported using Twitter dropped from 32.4% to 29.5%. This decline was driven by Democrats, 38% of whom reported using Twitter in our survey before Musk took over the comp...

In the past decade, healthcare access and quality in the U.S. have improved significantly, largely due to the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which enabled millions to obtain affordable health insurance. This has facilitated increased access to healthcare services and reduced the burden of uncompensated care. Technological advancements have further enha...

KEY TAKEAWAYS1. About half of American adults report having been infected with COVID-19 at some point, with 35% saying they have tested positive for COVID-19 before.2. Individuals vaccinated against COVID-19 report being sick for fewer days than unvaccinated individuals.3. Due to the underreported use of at-home rapid tests, the data on reported te...

KEY TAKEAWAYS1. Despite being featured less in popular news media, Americans remain concerned about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, with 78% reporting that they are either somewhat or very concerned.2. In response to a hypothetical Russian use of nuclear weapons, there was broad bipartisan agreement for an aggressive response, even if it meant more d...

Concerns over the integrity of the US voting system have been a prominent feature of recent election cycles. For the past two years, President Trump and his supporters have falsely claimed that widespread voter fraud cost Republicans the win in the 2020 presidential race. A number of prominent 2022 political candidates have questioned the legitimac...

Background: Symptoms of Coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) infection persist beyond 2 months in a subset of individuals, a phenomenon referred to as long COVID, but little is known about its functional correlates and in particular the relevance of neurocognitive symptoms. Method: We analyzed a previously-reported cohort derived from 8 waves of a nonprobabil...

Key takeaways1. Inflation and the economy are Americans’ top ranked problems facing the country headed into the 2022 elections.2. Republicans and independents both rank inflation and the economy as their first and second most important issues, but Democrats rank climate change and racism as their top two issues, with inflation coming in a near thir...

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers have studied how Americans' attitudes toward health experts influence their health behaviors and policy opinions. Fewer, however, consider the potential gap between individual and expert opinion about COVID-19, and how that might shape health attitudes and behavior. This omission is notable, as discrepa...

This report contains some key takeaways, a brief write-up, some summary statistics, and a collection of open-ended responses surrounding public opinion of the August 8, 2022 FBI search of Donald Trump’s estate, Mar-A-Lago.Key takeaways• A large majority of Americans quickly became aware of the Mar-A-Lago search. Overall, 81 percent reported that th...

Importance: Persistence of COVID-19 symptoms beyond 2 months, or long COVID, is increasingly recognized as a common sequela of acute infection. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of and sociodemographic factors associated with long COVID and to identify whether the predominant variant at the time of infection and prior vaccination status are...

The COVID States Project has issued a series of reports since the beginning of the pandemic regarding approval of how state governors and the President have handled the pandemic. We also have a dashboard that allows examination of the approval levels of each governor and of the President over time (the latter, both nationally and state-by-state). I...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) play a central role in responding to communicable disease threats. Its authority to do so, however, has recently met significant political and legal opposition. Unpacking the dynamics of public support for CDC authority is an important question, as doing so can provide insight into whether policy...

We use the case of welfare recipients to validate conjoint experiments as a measure of stereotype content. Stereotypes are politically consequential, but their content can be difficult to measure. The conjoint measure of stereotype content, in which respondents see profiles describing hypothetical persons and rate these persons’ degree of belonging...

https://theconversation.com/4-reasons-why-abortion-laws-often-clash-with-the-majoritys-preferences-in-the-us-from-constitutional-design-to-low-voter-turnout-188180

Antiviral therapies, specifically Paxlovid1 and Molnupiravir2, are highly effective in reducing the risk of hospitalization or death from COVID-19. Clinical trials found that Paxlovid could reduce the risk of death by as much as 89%.3 In light of the massive number of COVID-19 deaths - 400,000 deaths last year, which places it third among leading c...

The Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs did not increase democratic representation. https://theconversation.com/overturning-roe-is-not-making-laws-reflect-what-people-want-new-survey-highlights-flaws-in-supreme-courts-reasoning-in-returning-abortion-authority-to-states-187138

KEY TAKEAWAYS● Overall support for abortion across all nine scenarios increased following the Dobbs decision, with increases ranging from 1 to 5 percentage points. Among respondents for whom the abortion issue is “extremely important”, the corresponding increases were larger, ranging from 2 to 8 percentage points.● Support for abortion increases or...

Since the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to an abortion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization roughly two weeks ago, multiple states have enacted laws prohibiting or significantly restricting women from obtaining an abortion. The Court’s decision in Dobbs stated it was returning the “authority to regulate abortion…to th...

The path to FDA authorization for vaccines in young children has been complex. On February 1, 2022 Pfizer and BioNTech responded to requests from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to seek emergency authorization of their COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 6 months through 4 years on a rolling basis. This authorization would have allowed childr...

Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States will require most Americans to vaccinate against the disease. However, considerable research suggests that a significant proportion of Americans intend to forego vaccination, putting pandemic recovery at risk. Republicans are one of the largest groups of COVID-19 vaccine hesitant individuals. Th...

The number of deaths associated with COVID-19 in the United States is approaching the grim milestone of 1 million people, or around 1 in 330 people. In many communities, this number is far higher.The magnitude of these losses—and their impact on the survivors—can be difficult to comprehend. A recent White House memorandum acknowledges this impact a...

For the past two years, the United States has endured what the World Health Organization has termed an infodemic of misinformation involving COVID-19 in general, and the COVID-19 vaccination in particular. We reviewed the current breadth and depth of the COVID misinformation problem in a recent report [#82]. In that report (based on our January 202...

In this report, we examine how many older Americans are unvaccinated against COVID-19, and who these unvaccinated individuals are. The risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19 is far higher for older adults, making vaccination particularly critical in reducing the impact of the pandemic.KEY FINDINGS● 13% of older Americans are completely unv...

The Covid States Project has been tracking trends in executive approval of management of the COVID-19 outbreak throughout the pandemic. We find:● Generally, there has been a downward trend for approval of all governors since the beginning of the pandemic.● Republican respondents in particular have trended downwards in their approval of governors. R...

Importance: Both major depression and firearm ownership are associated with an increased risk for death by suicide in the United States, but the extent of overlap among these major risk factors is not well characterized. Objective: To assess the prevalence of current and planned firearm ownership among individuals with depression. Design, setti...

Misinformation remains an important public health concern, especially as it is widely seen as a factor affecting people’s behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic. In past reports, we have discussed the prevalence and demographics of COVID-19 misinformation, its link to vaccination rates, and its dependence on social media news consumption.Here, we ex...

It has been approximately 9 months since the FDA authorized youth ages 12 to 17 to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, and 3 months since authorization for kids ages 5 to 11. After each authorization, vaccination rates initially surged among those age groups. Now that more time has elapsed - along with the spike in cases due to the Omicro...

Recent years have seen armed protests, threats, and violence against government officials following mask mandates, COVID-19 related closures, and the 2020 election (including, most notably, the deadly January 6, 2021 attack on the US capitol). These events have sparked concern about the state of American democracy and the safety of government offic...

The availability of home antigen testing alongside continued challenges in pursuing PCR and antigen tests outside of the home means it is likely that some positive cases are not represented in official counts of cases or positivity rates. Community survey methods could prove helpful in evaluating the extent to which such cases may be missing from o...

Late Friday, the CDC updated its guidance regarding mask types for Americans, saying that people now “can choose” to wear higher quality respirators such as N95 or KN95 masks, if they wish. The updated guidance comes on the heels of President Biden’s announcement on Thursday that the nation has more than tripled its stockpile of N95s to help ensure...

How significant a problem is misinformation for the delivery of healthcare services? Misinformation, and any resulting misperceptions, certainly have the potential to negatively impact people’s attitudes and behaviors surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether or not someone internalizes misinformation depends on multiple factors, but one key consi...

The COVID states project conducted a survey and issued a report in the immediate aftermath of the storming of the Capitol building on January 6, 2021. Here, we revisit some of the opinions regarding January 6th, a year later.

As the world continues to respond to the spread of a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2, which causes the disease commonly known as COVID-19), it has become clear that one of the most effective strategies for curbing the pandemic is the COVID-19 vaccine. However, a major challenge that health organizations face when advocating for the uptake of the COVI...

In the U.S., children ages 5 and older are now eligible for COVID-19 vaccination, after the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine received emergency authorization from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in early November 2021. The vaccine had previously been authorized for youth ages 12-17 in Spring 2021. As of December 16, the CDC reported tha...

In a few short years, the scholarly approach known as Critical Race Theory (CRT) went from a relatively obscure academic framework to the new front in the American culture wars. CRT has made its way to the front pages of newspapers, cable news show’s primetime specials, Presidential executive orders, and a slate of laws and regulations dictating ho...

Recognizing that the protection conferred by COVID-19 vaccines may wane over time, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has encouraged adults in the United States to receive booster shots that can augment their immunity to the virus. While the Biden administration sought to encourage all adults to receive boosters, the CDC initia...

The COVID-19 pandemic and the backlash against Critical Race Theory have led to increased attention to school board elections. To better understand who votes in these elections and who attends school board meetings, this report examines the demographic characteristics of individuals who say they attended a school board meeting in the past 6 months...

In early November 2021, children ages 5-11 were authorized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, making an additional 28 million children eligible for the shot. Given this significant advancement in COVID-19 vaccine availability - particularly in light of recent concerns over the Om...

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s announcement last week that he would not seek re-election comes on the heels of a wave of retirements of moderate Republican politicians who have found themselves at odds with former President Donald Trump and his vision of the Republican Party. Governor Baker’s decision to not seek re-election is somewhat sur...

With the return of students to U.S. colleges and universities this September, more than 1,000 institutions of higher education have implemented COVID-19 vaccine mandates to keep COVID-19 cases low. The majority of students have complied with these mandates, and according to our recent survey data, nearly three-fourths of university students report...

In early October 2021, Pfizer and BioNTech asked the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to authorize their COVID-19 vaccine for children between the ages of 5 and 11. The success of vaccinating children is, however, still contingent upon whether parents feel their children should get the COVID-19 vaccine.Before the pandemic, vaccine hesitancy am...

In mid-August 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (C.D.C.) issued a recommendation for both vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans to begin wearing masks in public again, particularly in places experiencing outbreaks of COVID-19, driven by the Delta variant. Further compounding this concern is the lower propensity of unvaccinated in...

The vaccination rates of healthcare workers are of particular importance because they are more likely to be conduits of exposure for vulnerable individuals. Here we revisit our earlier report on the vaccination rates of healthcare workers between June and September. From June 2021 to September 2021, vaccination rates and attitudes1 among healthcare...

COVID-19 continues to surge in the United States and elsewhere, propelled by the highly contagious Delta variant. As of this writing (on September 29, 2021), about three quarters (76%) of the eligible U.S. population (age 12 and up) have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. This is likely not enough to achieve herd immunity in the Unit...

The COVID States Project survey regularly asks people in all 50 states about their approval of their governors and the President. Since our last report on executive approval, which examined trends through March 2021, the pandemic has notably evolved, with huge surges of cases and deaths associated with the Delta variant throughout the summer and ea...

Scholarly and journalistic profiles of anti-vaxxers – i.e., individuals who are active in efforts to oppose widespread vaccination – suggest that some Americans may identify with the “anti-vaccine” label in order to fulfill social goals (e.g., a sense of belonging in a broader community). This is potentially problematic, as anti-vaxx social identif...

Counterintuitively, wealthier countries tend to be more vaccine skeptical than poorer countries. One possible explanation—the Online Accessibility hypothesis—posits that internet access facilitates the spread of antivaccine misinformation, particularly for those lower in scientific and medical expert trust. Another explanation—the Out of Sight hypo...

Purpose To examine whether the adoption of COVID‐19‐related preventive health behaviors vary in rural versus urban communities of the United States while accounting for the influence of political ideology, demographic factors, and COVID‐19 experiences. Methods We rely on a representative survey of 5009 American adults collected from May 28 to June...

Context: Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic will require most Americans to vaccinate against the virus. Unfortunately, previous research suggests that many Americans plan to refuse a vaccine; thereby jeopardizing collective immunity. We investigate the effectiveness of three different health communication frames hypothesized to increase vaccine inten...

Context: Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic will require millions of Americans to vaccinate against the virus. Unfortunately, previous research suggests that many Americans plan to refuse a vaccine; thereby jeopardizing collective immunity. We investigate the effectiveness of three different health communication frames hypothesized to increase vaccin...

Vaccine skepticism interferes with governments’ abilities to maintain public safety. However, vaccine skepticism positively predicts country wealth rather than negatively. One explanation is that higher internet access could help spread anti-vaccine misinformation throughout society, particularly for those lower in scientific and medical expert tru...

Vaccine skepticism interferes with governments’ abilities to maintain public safety. However, vaccine skepticism positively predicts country wealth rather than negatively. One explanation is that higher internet access could help spread anti-vaccine misinformation throughout society, particularly for those lower in scientific and medical expert tru...