Religious Leaders’ Compliance with State Authority: Experimental Evidence from COVID-19 in Pakistan
在巴基斯坦开展随机对照试验，发现一对一接触社区宗教领袖能使其更可能要求信徒遵守政府防疫规定，效果不依赖宗教内容，而是通过说服机制起作用。
Abstract A randomized controlled trial in Pakistan tests whether one-on-one engagement with community religious leaders can encourage them to instruct congregants to follow government regulations. Treated religious leaders are 25 percent more likely to comply with government requirements to tell congregants they should wear a mask to prevent COVID transmission when attending prayers. Treatment effects do not depend on the religious content of the message. Effects are driven by respondents who already understand the mechanics of COVID transmission at baseline, suggesting the treatment does not work by correcting basic knowledge about the disease, but rather through a mechanism of persuasion.