RAPID: Collaborative Research: Tracking and Explaining Americans' response to the Ebola outbreak

本项目考察了美国公众对当前埃博拉疫情的反应，该疫情于2013年12月在西非几内亚农村地区爆发。到2014年10月，已经有几名美国人感染了埃博拉病毒，其中一名护士与一名在达拉斯医院接受治疗的利比里亚人有过接触。这个项目探讨了公众舆论是如何受到以下因素的影响的：(1)主要政治家的政策回应；(2)将埃博拉病毒不仅视为公共卫生问题，还视为移民问题。特别是，我们考察了美国人对埃博拉病毒的了解，他们对移民的态度，以及他们对美国政府应对埃博拉疫情的信心。我们衡量不同类型的信息如何影响人们的知识和态度，并确定哪些因素推动美国公众对这一问题的看法。例如，一些参与者认为美国人是埃博拉病毒在美国传播的潜在来源，而另一些人则认为非洲人是传染源。该项目还测量了这些不同的框架如何影响受访者向美国慈善机构捐款的意愿，这些慈善机构在西非抗击埃博拉病毒。了解美国人如何应对埃博拉危机的不同框架，以及政客们提出的政策回应，不仅要通过捕捉他们对调查问题的回答，还要确定他们向一个无党派、非营利的医疗机构捐款的意愿，这将有助于我们更好地理解影响人们对健康、移民和慈善捐赠的态度和行为的因素。为了研究问题框架和党派关系如何影响对公共卫生流行病、移民和政府反应的知识、态度和行为，我们使用了由专业调查公司在线管理的调查实验。该调查有四个部分：预处理问题，如被调查者的性别、年龄、教育水平、党派认同以及以前对埃博拉的知识和态度；随机给予治疗（埃博拉情况介绍）；态度和行为结果的集合；还有操纵检查。治疗（我们的埃博拉实况报道）提供了有关埃博拉病毒和最近爆发的关键事实，以及随机分配的五条信息中的一条，这些信息使我们能够评估问题框架和党派关系对美国应对这场危机的因果影响。我们研究的一个新颖之处在于，它不仅收集了美国人个人的态度信息，还收集了他们的行为信息。具体来说，我们的调查工具包括一个问题，让受访者选择将他们的部分奖金捐赠给一个目前在西非抗击埃博拉病毒的非营利性、无党派组织。最后，操纵检查被设计来验证我们的调查受访者遵守治疗的程度。该提案是在NSF 15-006关于埃博拉病毒的亲爱的同事信（DCL）之前提交的，但其资助与DCL中确定的优先事项一致。

General Audience Summary This project examines the American public response to the current Ebola outbreak, which started in rural Guinea, West Africa, in December 2013. By October 2014, a handful of Americans had been infected with Ebola, including a nurse who came into contact with a Liberian national being treated in a Dallas hospital. This project asks how public opinion is shaped by (1) the policy responses offered by leading politicians and (2) the framing of Ebola as not just a public health issue but also an immigration issue. In particular, we examine Americans' knowledge of Ebola, their attitudes toward immigration, and their confidence in the U.S. government to respond to the Ebola outbreak. We measure how different types of information influence people's knowledge, attitudes and identify which factors drive U.S. public opinion toward this issue. For example, some participants are primed to think about an American as a potential source for Ebola transmission in America, while others are primed to think about an African as the source. The project also measures how these different frames affect respondents' willingness to donate to a U.S.-based charity fighting Ebola in West Africa. Learning how Americans respond to different frames of the Ebola crisis, and to the policy responses offered by politicians, not just by capturing their responses to survey questions but also determining their willingness to donate money to a non-partisan, non-profit healthcare organization, will better our understanding of the factors that shape attitudes and behaviors toward health, immigration and charitable giving. Technical SummaryTo study how issue framing and partisanship influence knowledge, attitudes, and behavior toward a public health epidemic, immigration, and the administration's response, we use a survey experiment administered online by a professional survey firm. The survey has four sections: pretreatment questions, such as the respondent's gender, age, education level, partisanship identity, and previous knowledge of and attitudes toward Ebola; the random administration of the treatment (an Ebola Fact Sheet); the collection of attitudinal and behavioral outcomes; and a manipulation check. The treatment (our Ebola Fact Sheet ) provides key facts about the Ebola virus and the recent outbreak, plus one of five randomly assigned pieces of information that allows us to assess the causal effect of issue-framing and of partisanship on the American response to this crisis. One of the novel aspects of our study is that it collects information not only on individual Americans' attitudes, but also on their behavior. Specifically, our survey instrument includes a question that provides respondents with the choice to donate part of their bonus survey compensation to a nonprofit, non-partisan organization currently fighting Ebola in West Africa. Finally, a manipulation check is designed to verify the extent to which our survey respondents comply with the treatment.This proposal was submitted prior to NSF 15-006 Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) on the Ebola Virus, but is funded consistent with the priorities identified in the DCL.