The Virus of Fear: The Political Impact of Ebola in the U.S.

Campante, Filipe; Depetris-Chauvin, Emilio; Durante, Ruben

doi:10.1257/app.20220030

Abstract

We study how public anxiety related to the threat of a disease outbreak can affect the behavior of voters, by looking at the Ebola scare that hit the U.S. right before the 2014 midterm elections. Exploiting the timing and location of the four cases diagnosed in the U.S., we show that heightened concern about Ebola led to a lower vote share for the Democrats, as well as lower turnout, despite no evidence of a general anti-incumbent effect (including for President Obama). Voters displayed increasingly conservative attitudes on immigration but not on other ideologically-charged issues. Our findings indicate that emotional reactions can have a strong electoral impact, and that this is mediated by issues that can be plausibly associated with the specific triggering factor.

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The Virus of Fear: The Political Impact of Ebola in the U.S.

Abstract

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