Affiliation:
1. Department of Economics, Duke University , Durham, NC , USA
Abstract
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.
Funder
International Growth Centre
UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
IRB
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)