"Hey Beautiful"; Race and Gender on Tinder

Despite the popularity and societal relevance of online dating, an absence of available data has made it difficult to understand how people meet and interact online. The few studies that do exist have largely failed to focus on women of color, despite broad consensus that online dating spaces are particularly toxic and unwelcoming for those users. To study such experiences, we created synthetic Tinder profiles featuring a racially diverse set of female stock photo models to see how they fared in the Tinder ecosystem. Profiles featuring White women received more matches and slightly more messages, but all profiles received similar message content. We discuss the implications of our results and limitations of our approach

The COVID States Project #5: Approval of executive performance during COVID-19

The initial response to a crisis typically depends on the executive branch of government, because they may act more rapidly than legislative and judicial branches. For COVID-19 in particular, the focal decision-makers have been the president and the governors of the 50 states. In the eyes of the public, how have the president and governors responded? We surveyed 22,501 individuals across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. The survey was conducted on 12-28 June 2020 by PureSpectrum via an online, nonprobability sample, with state-level representative quotas for race/ethnicity, age, and gender (for methodological details on the other waves, see covidstates.org). In addition to balancing on these dimensions, we reweighted our data using demographic characteristics to match the U.S. population with respect to race/ethnicity, age, gender, and education. This was the fifth in a series of surveys we have been conducting since April 2020, examining attitudes and behaviors regarding COVID-19 in the United States

The COVID States Project #7: Update on vote by mail

We surveyed 19,052 individuals across all 50 states plus the District of Columbia. The survey was conducted on 10-26 July 2020 by PureSpectrum via an online, nonprobability sample, with state-level representative quotas for race/ethnicity, age, and gender (for methodological details on the other waves, see covidstates.org). In addition to balancing on these dimensions, we reweighted our data using demographic characteristics to match the U.S. population with respect to race/ethnicity, age, gender, education, and living in urban, suburban, or rural areas. This was the seventh in a series of surveys we have been conducting since April 2020, examining attitudes and behaviors regarding COVID-19 in the United States. Overall, support for voting by mail is quite high, with 64% of likely voters in our survey1 supporting making it easier to vote by mail, and only 23% opposing. Similarly, more Americans who say they plan to vote in 2020 support than oppose universal extension of vote by mail. A total of 66% of likely voters report that they would support giving every American the right to vote by mail in November, with 22% opposing

The COVID States Project #8: Failing the test

Rapid turnaround of testing for COVID-19 infection is essential to containing the pandemic. Ideally, test results would be available the same day. Our findings indicate that the United States is not currently performing testing with nearly enough speed. In our large (19,058 respondents) national survey, conducted between July 10 and 26, we asked whether respondents had been tested for COVID-19 and how long they had waited to get results. Our finding: 37% of those who had been tested by nasal swab received results within 2 days, and the average wait time was 4.1 days; with 31% of tests taking more than 4 days, and 10% 10 days or more. Further, there are few signs that turnaround times are diminishing. For individuals who responded that their last test had been in April, they had waited on average 4.2 days to get results; and for individuals tested in July, 4.1 days

The COVID States Project #9: Will Americans vaccinate themselves and their children against COVID-19

At least 5 companies have launched Phase III clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines, the final step before seeking approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). According to NIAID director Anthony Fauci, vaccines may be widely available in the U.S. by spring 2021 if these trials are successful. But should these vaccines become available, will Americans accept them? Between July 10 and July 26, we surveyed 19,058 adults in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. We asked about the likelihood that they would seek vaccination for themselves, and for their children. We also asked about the factors that would influence their decision making. We find that, overall, 66% of adults would be somewhat or extremely likely to vaccinate themselves; 66% would be somewhat or extremely likely to vaccinate their children. These rates vary markedly between states, as shown on the figure below

The COVID States Project #6: Update on executive approval

The latest update to our executive approval series reveals a mix of continuity and change. The most obvious difference in the circumstances confronting the nation’s executives in the latest wave (July 10-26, 2020, N=19,052) compared to the prior wave (June 12-28, 2020) is that far more states are seeing increases in COVID cases than in early June. For instance, in the Northeast in our late June wave, all but one state (New Jersey) were trending downward in COVID cases relative to our early June wave. In late July, all but two states in the region are trending upwards in COVID cases. (New Jersey, ironically, represents one of the two improving states, with the second being Maine). Despite these worsening trends, many governors in the Northeast (excepting Maine, where Democratic Governor Mill’s approval rating stands at a middling 54%) remain quite popular, and have seen their approval ratings remain relatively stable (e.g. Massachusetts and Vermont) or increase (e.g., Rhode Island and Maine). Two governors in the region — Governor Murphy (D) of New Jersey and Governor Sununu (R) of New Hampshire — have faced substantial erosion in public support for their management of the pandemic since June, by 6 and 8 percentage points, respectively

The COVID States Project #10: The pandemic and the protests

A multi-wave 50-state COVID-19 survey: https://covidstates.org/ From: The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States. A joint project of: Northeastern University, Harvard University, Rutgers University, and Northwestern University

The COVID States Project #11: Perceptions of school reopening safety in the US

An increasing number of school districts across the United States have announced that they will provide entirely remote learning when school resumes this fall. Others, like New York City, continue to consider alternatives, including hybrid models in which students attend school part-time. While many other countries have succeeded in reopening schools without a resurgence of cases (with some notable exceptions), they reopened in a very different context, with rates of infection in the community far lower than in many places in the United States. On the other hand, the federal government, and some state governments, continue to focus on the importance of reopening. Another complication is the role of teachers’ unions, who have expressed discomfort about their teachers’ safety and their ability to provide a safe environment for students. And among schools already reopening, some students have already tested positive for COVID-19. Parents of school-age children thus confront difficult decisions about their children’s education - decisions that will hinge on whether they believe schools can be made safe. We surveyed 19,058 adults in the 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia for 2 weeks beginning July 10 and ending July 26, asking about their perception of the safety of returning to school. We also asked a subset of respondents whether they support reopening schools for in-person classes in the fall. We further aimed to understand whether these comfort levels vary depending on rates of infection in their community, and on other attitudes about COVID-19