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Trading Liberties: Most citizens do support restricting freedoms in times of crisis

Author

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  • Hartmann, Felix

    (Humboldt University of Berlin)

  • Humphreys, Macartan
  • Klüver, Heike
  • Geissler, Ferdinand
  • Giesecke, Johannes

Abstract

Major crises regularly lead to a public debate about whether the government should be able to restrict personal freedoms in the interest of public welfare. Using a factorial survey experiment administered to more than 10,000 online survey respondents in Germany during the COVID crisis, we assess under what conditions citizens are willing to sacrifice individual civil freedoms in the interest of public well-being. Despite highly visible protests against Covid policies, we document broad willingness to accept restrictions on rights alongside sharp heterogeneity with respect to vaccination status and party identification. The majority of citizens are vaccinated and strongly support limitations on freedoms in response to extreme conditions---especially when the vaccinated themselves are exempted from these limitations. The unvaccinated minority generally prefer no restrictions on freedoms regardless of the severity of the pandemic. These policy preferences in turn matter for reported trust in government, in opposite ways for vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens.

Suggested Citation

  • Hartmann, Felix & Humphreys, Macartan & Klüver, Heike & Geissler, Ferdinand & Giesecke, Johannes, 2022. "Trading Liberties: Most citizens do support restricting freedoms in times of crisis," OSF Preprints m6yvb, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:m6yvb
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/m6yvb
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