Naomi Hall-Byers
$199,251
Jack Mewhirter
University of Cincinnati Main Campus
Ohio
Social Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE)
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, emergency laws and powers on a scale not seen since the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks have been enacted, with implications for the everyday lives of Americans. Building on research on public perceptions of trade-offs between security protections and restrictions on personal freedoms in the post-9/11 environment, this project will use surveys that explore COVID-19 pandemic mitigation efforts that potentially constrain legal freedoms. As a result, this research will determine popular tolerance for perceived public health protections versus legal restrictions. Employing several waves of survey analyses of a nationally representative sample of the US population, this project will explore public views on government actions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic. Econometric models and machine learning techniques will be utilized to analyze the survey data. Findings will have implications on several theoretical literatures across disciplines, which will inform policy makers, scholars, and the public of the balance between competing public health imperatives and legal protections.This project is jointly supported by the Law and Science Program (LS) and the Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (SMA) in the Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.