In this phase, scores among the liberals—both overall and for vaccine willingness—remained consistently in the 80s, no matter what. Ahn thinks the stagnant number could mean that liberal compliance was already at a “ceiling,” a high past which it couldn’t improve. Or, perhaps, they were in fact less sensitive to disgust.
But among conservatives, cuing disgust changed intentions more than showing people news stories about incentives or showing benign images. The overall compliance score was about 65 among those who saw disgusting images—8 points higher than those who saw tame photos and 9 points higher than those who saw headlines about incentives. On willingness to vaccinate, conservatives’ average score was about 55 for those who saw gross photos, 39 for those who saw regular photos, and 44 for those who learned about vaccination incentives.
“There’s something about…
