Segmenting markets by the 50 American states: the COVID-19 case

This paper segments the 50 American states by COVID-19 vaccination rates, the Big Five personality traits, religiosity, and 2020 presidential election voting patterns to understand the states as segments with unique characteristics that make them receptive to persuasive COVID-19 vaccination appeals. We collected data by state of the Big Five personality traits, average religiosity, vaccination information, percentage vote for Biden, and governors' political affiliation. Next, we deployed a two-step cluster analysis method where we first used a distance measure to separate groups and then a probabilistic approach to choose the optimal subgroup model to classify the states by the analysis variables. We found three clusters: traditionalists (n = 22), progressives (n = 23), and independents (n = 5). We discovered positive relationships among resident vaccination rates and three of the Big Five traits and religiosity. Differences by state and national political perspectives were statistically significant.