Should we trust people to do the right thing?

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Chapter 4 in Nudged into Lockdown?, 2022, pp 84-120 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: In this chapter, I discuss the role of trust and trustworthiness in our everyday lives and explore their implications for Covid-19 policy. Can we trust people to wear masks and/or self-isolate on their own accord or must they be compelled to do the right thing on the basis of penalties for non-compliance? I also discuss the distinction between extrinsic and intrinsic incentives and show that a model of humanity that starts from a large degree of mistrust is not borne out by the evidence. I show that allowing for intrinsic motivations can lead to very different policy responses not only when it comes to pandemics but across a range of activities such as organizational design, providing micro-finance and how we design penalties for rule violators.

Keywords: Economics and Finance; Politics and Public Policy Sociology and Social Policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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