Lives or Livelihoods? Perceived Tradeoffs and Public Demand for Non-Pharmaceutical Interventions

We study how cost-benefit considerations shape the public acceptance of non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). In an online experiment conducted on a representative sample from the US during the early COVID-19 pandemic, we provide half of our respondents with research evidence pointing to low economic costs of shutdown measures. A one standard deviation decrease in perceived economic costs increases support for NPIs by two times as much as having a COVID at-risk condition, and by half as much as being a Democrat. Varying projected health benefits of NPIs has similar effects. Personal exposure to health risks reduces people's responsiveness to cost-benefit considerations