Dr Manu Savani (Social and Political Sciences, Brunel University London) and an international research team analysed when people support strict government policies. They discovered that although people generally prefer policies that maintain freedom of choice, many accepted tough rules like fines and mandates to increase COVID-19 vaccinations. The researchers suggest in their article, published in Nature's Scientific Reports, that this willingness to accept strict policies might be due to the exceptionally high effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.
Their findings indicate that:
- As the effectiveness of a vaccine goes up, so does public backing for strict vaccination measures, though the increase is slight.
- This trend levels off when the vaccine's effectiveness reaches higher levels.
- This indicates that the success of an intervention plays a crucial role in gaining support for forceful policies, but only to a certain point of effectiveness.
Reported by:
Eliza Kania
eliza.kania@brunal.ac.uk