The Virus of Fear: The Political Impact of Ebola in the United States
研究2014年美国埃博拉恐慌如何影响选民行为，发现对埃博拉的担忧降低了民主党得票率和投票率，并增强了移民问题上的保守态度，但对其他意识形态议题无显著影响。
We study how public anxiety over the threat of a disease outbreak can affect voter behavior by looking at the Ebola scare that hit the United States in 2014. Exploiting timing and locations of the four cases diagnosed in the country, we show that heightened concern about Ebola led to a lower Democratic vote share and lower turn-out, despite no evidence of a general anti-incumbent effect (including 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, mediated by issues plausibly associated with the specific triggering factor.