There is No Place Like Home for the Holidays: Who Travels in the Midst of a Deadly Pandemic?

Abstract

The 2020 year-end holidays were a time of much apprehension regarding COVID-19, with U.S. health officials concerned that travel would result in a post-holiday surge of the disease. As such, much effort was expended encouraging people to forego their normal travel. Many Americans, however, ignored this advice and a strong uptick of travel within the U.S. was soon followed by an alarming increase in COVID cases. A U.S. online survey was conducted to better understand those individuals who made the risky decision to travel despite being encouraged by their government not to do so. Those who traveled for the holidays were compared with those who stayed home, based on their attitudes toward COVID, various psychographic characteristics associated with risk, political attitudes, and demographics. The between-group differences, shared herein, were startlingly clear. The findings are of theoretical value and will prove useful when setting policy and messaging during future crises.