Under what conditions are people willing to accept paternalistic government policies? The use of libertarian paternalism (“nudges”) has gained popularity and captured the attention of scholars and policy-makers alike. A central underlying assumption in advancing governmental nudges is that the public prefers them over classic paternalistic policies, which, unlike nudges, are coercive. This paper studies the extent and circumstances under which this assumption is justified, arguing that the claim for the preeminence of nudges is overstated. I develop a theoretical framework to account for the conditions under which people prefer coercive and non-coercive paternalism, and test it experimentally among a national U.S. sample. I find that in certain theoretically predictable contexts, individuals not only tolerate, but even prefer coercive paternalism over nudges. These attitudes are systematically explained through the interaction between the coercion level and policy domain in question.

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人们什么时候接受政府家长作风？理论和实验证据

什么情况下人们愿意接受家长式的政府政策？自由意志家长式作风（“助推”）的使用已经流行起来，并引起了学者和政策制定者的注意。推进政府助推的一个核心基本假设是，公众更喜欢它们而不是经典的家长式政策，后者与助推不同，是强制性的。本文研究了这一假设合理的程度和情况，认为对助推的优越性的主张被夸大了。我开发了一个理论框架来解释人们更喜欢强制性和非强制性家长作风的条件，并在美国全国样本中进行了实验测试。我发现在某些理论上可预测的情况下，个人不仅容忍，但甚至更喜欢强制性的家长式作风而不是轻推。这些态度通过强制水平和相关政策领域之间的相互作用得到系统解释。