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Making the Grade: Policy Design and Effects of Information about Government Performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 November 2024

Michael Henderson  and
Belinda C. Davis Open the ORCID record for Belinda C. Davis [Opens in a new window]
Michael Henderson*
Affiliation:
Manship School of Mass Communication, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
Belinda C. Davis
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, USA
*
Corresponding author: Michael Henderson; Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Increasingly, governments report on public service quality, which has the potential to inform evaluations of performance that underlie voters’ opinions and behaviors. We argue these policies have important effects that go beyond informing voters. Specifically, we contend that the format in which policymakers choose to report information will steer the direction of opinion by exacerbating or mitigating biases in information processing. Using the case of school accountability systems in the United States and a variety of experimental and observational approaches, we find that letter grade systems for rating public school performance, as opposed to other reporting formats, exacerbate negativity bias. Public opinion proves more responsive to negative information than to positive information in letter grade systems than in alternate formats. Policymakers, then, do not simply inform public opinion; rather, their decisions about how to present information shape the interpretations that voters ultimately draw from the information provided.

Keywords

accountabilityperformance reportingnegativity biasexpectation disconfirmationeducation policy
Type
Original Article
Information
State Politics & Policy Quarterly , Volume 25 , Issue 1 , March 2025 , pp. 87 - 107
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the State Politics and Policy Section of the American Political Science Association

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