Thread by @sfiscience

💉 Without mandates, people’s opposition to #vaccines was softer than one might guess — only 3.3% of those surveyed. With mandates, resistance quintupled, to 16.5%.

New research by inbound SFI Fellow Katrin Schmelz (@UniKonstanz) & SFI Prof Samuel Bowles:
santafe.edu/news-center/ne…

"Opposition to voluntary and mandated #COVID19 #vaccination as a dynamic process: Evidence and #policy implications of changing #beliefs"

by Katrin Schmelz & Samuel Bowles

Read the paper in @PNASNews:
pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pn…

“To increase and sustain vaccination rates, change people’s beliefs, and build trust. People have to feel that the guidance they’re getting from the government makes sense and is reliable. And it’s key to get the word out that the vaccines really work.”
– Katrin Schmelz

“Looking beyond COVID, we might have to take on board that some of the standard tools of public policy — mandates — backfire if experienced as a limit on freedom rather than a necessity for expanding the freedom of all to lead a more normal life in pandemic times.”
– Sam Bowles

“Mandates do not cancel the need to change hearts & minds. If mandates are implemented, then enforcement by governments & persuasion by trusted medical professionals should be deployed not as alternatives but as complements, each contributing synergistically.”
– Katrin Schmelz