Courtesy of NHBR
According to research conducted earlier this year by Lawrence Hamilton, professor and senior fellow at the Carsey School, Granite Staters are more likely to trust scientists than politicians. But Hamilton also says differing approaches to science can explain some of the difference in how Democrats and Republicans are responding to the pandemic. “A virus doesn’t care about your political identity, but following Trump’s lead, many Republicans have made it a signifier of political identity to not take Covid-19 seriously, and not take mitigation steps such as staying home or wearing a mask,” Hamilton wrote in an email to NHBR. “Democrats, conversely, have been more likely to trust scientists, who are pretty much unanimously saying that mitigation steps are important.”
