Anti, hostile, and alternative: an exploration of anti-elite attitudes, hostile-media perceptions, and alternative media use in the context of opposition to Covid-19 measures

Abstract

During the Covid-19 pandemic, significant parts of the population deliberately opposed prevention measures as an expression of protest. In this study, I investigated the role of anti-elite attitudes (‘we’, the people, vs. ‘they’, the elite) in the context of opposition behavior, considering anti-elite attitudes towards politics, science, and media. Drawing from social identity theory, I examined how such anti-elite attitudes correlated with hostile media perceptions, alternative media use, and opposition to Covid-19 measures. To this Show more