The public have supported ‘hard’ policy measures, but will they still do so when the pandemic is over?

Britain, like other countries, has seen overwhelming public support for ‘hard’ policy measures during the pandemic. This runs counter to previous evidence that people prefer ‘soft’ interventions, such as nudges. Is this shift permanent? Could it apply to climate policy as well as the pandemic? Sanchayan Banerjee (LSE), Manu Savani (Brunel University London) and Ganga Shreedhar (LSE) look at the evidence so far.