Who Prioritizes the Economy over Health? The Role of Political Orientation and Human Values

One of the main challenges governments faced during the Covid-19 pandemic was to balance economic considerations with protecting the health of people (i.e., economic vs humanitarian motives). In the present study (N= 296), we investigated whether human values, political orientation, and fear of Covid-19 predicted economic and humanitarian motives. We found that people holding self-enhancement and normative values, had lower levels of Covid-19 fear, and were more right-leaning in terms of their political orientation, tended to prioritize the economy. In contrast, people valuing normative values less, interactive values more, reported higher levels of Covid-19 related fear, and were more left-leaning, tended to prioritize the health of people. Importantly, values explained variance above and beyond political orientation and fear of Covid-19. Together, our findings highlight the importance of values in decision making.