r/science • u/umichnews • 2d ago

Psychology U-Michigan study finds most Americans prioritized preventing child abuse, domestic violence, and deaths linked to economic hardship over preventing additional COVID-19 deaths during lockdowns; researchers say these preferences highlight the need to balance disease prevention with other societal harm

https://news.umich.edu/americans-prioritized-preventing-lockdown-harms-over-covid-19-deaths/
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u/tert_butoxide 1d ago edited 1d ago

Well.... this tells us what people's gut reaction is when forced to make a trolley problem-style policy decision in an online questionnaire, with the benefit of hindsight (re: how the pandemic played out). And when given specific numbers but without the ability to ask clarifying questions or get context for those numbers (how were they arrived at, etc). 

It's an insight into how we think about this stuff but I'm not sure this is exactly a basis for policy. 

From the methods, the specific questions asked: 

Each of the two-option choices that we presented participants began with the statement, “Pretend you are a government decision-maker, and you need to decide which of the two outcomes you will focus on trying to prevent. (For reference, there are 330 million people living in the United States right now). Which ONE outcome would you choose to prevent?”

The two choices for each item were presented in random order. The choice to prevent lives lost to COVID read the same in each of the four outcome-prevention items: “Prevent 300,000 Americans – 225,000 of whom are over 65 years old—from dying of COVID.” The comparison choices for the three initial items are as follows. CM: “Prevent 97,000 incidents of child abuse among American children.” IPV: “Prevent 2,000,000 Americans from experiencing an episode of domestic violence.” Financial decline: “Prevent 150,000 Americans of all ages from dying due to the ripple effects of an economic decline.”

The fourth outcome-prevention item's comparison choice was “Prevent 97,000 American children from experiencing an episode of child abuse, AND prevent 2,000,000 Americans from experiencing an episode of domestic violence, AND prevent 150,000 Americans of all ages from dying due to the ripple effects of an economic decline.”