Individualized Text Messages about Public Services Fail to Sway Voters: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Ugandan Elections

IF 3.2 Q1 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Journal of Experimental Political Science Pub Date : 2021-05-20 DOI:10.1017/XPS.2021.15

Ryan S. Jablonski, Mark T. Buntaine, D. Nielson, Paula M. Pickering

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引用次数: 4

Abstract

Abstract Mobile communication technologies can provide citizens access to information that is tailored to their specific circumstances. Such technologies may therefore increase citizens’ ability to vote in line with their interests and hold politicians accountable. In a large-scale randomized controlled trial in Uganda (n = 16,083), we investigated whether citizens who receive private, timely, and individualized text messages by mobile phone about public services in their community punished or rewarded incumbents in local elections in line with the information. Respondents claimed to find the messages valuable and there is evidence that they briefly updated their beliefs based on the messages; however, the treatment did not cause increased votes for incumbents where public services were better than expected nor decreased votes where public services were worse than anticipated. The considerable knowledge gaps among citizens identified in this study indicate potential for communication technologies to effectively share civic information. Yet the findings imply that when the attribution of public service outcomes is difficult, even individualized information is unlikely to affect voting behavior.

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关于公共服务的个性化短信无法动摇选民：来自乌干达选举实地实验的证据

移动通信技术可以为公民提供适合其具体情况的信息。因此，这些技术可能会提高公民根据自己的利益进行投票的能力，并让政治家承担责任。在乌干达进行的一项大规模随机对照试验中(n = 16083)，我们调查了通过手机收到有关社区公共服务的私人、及时和个性化短信的公民是否会根据这些信息惩罚或奖励当地选举中的在职者。被调查者声称发现这些信息很有价值，有证据表明他们根据这些信息短暂地更新了自己的信念;然而，在公共服务比预期好时，这种待遇并没有使现任者的选票增加，也没有使公共服务比预期差时的选票减少。本研究发现，公民之间存在相当大的知识差距，这表明通信技术具有有效共享公民信息的潜力。然而，研究结果表明，当公共服务结果难以归因时，即使是个性化的信息也不太可能影响投票行为。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Journal of Experimental Political Science Social Sciences-Sociology and Political Science

CiteScore

5.10

自引率

8.30%

发文量

期刊介绍： The Journal of Experimental Political Science (JEPS) features cutting-edge research that utilizes experimental methods or experimental reasoning based on naturally occurring data. We define experimental methods broadly: research featuring random (or quasi-random) assignment of subjects to different treatments in an effort to isolate causal relationships in the sphere of politics. JEPS embraces all of the different types of experiments carried out as part of political science research, including survey experiments, laboratory experiments, field experiments, lab experiments in the field, natural and neurological experiments. We invite authors to submit concise articles (around 4000 words or fewer) that immediately address the subject of the research. We do not require lengthy explanations regarding and justifications of the experimental method. Nor do we expect extensive literature reviews of pros and cons of the methodological approaches involved in the experiment unless the goal of the article is to explore these methodological issues. We expect readers to be familiar with experimental methods and therefore to not need pages of literature reviews to be convinced that experimental methods are a legitimate methodological approach. We will consider longer articles in rare, but appropriate cases, as in the following examples: when a new experimental method or approach is being introduced and discussed or when novel theoretical results are being evaluated through experimentation. Finally, we strongly encourage authors to submit manuscripts that showcase informative null findings or inconsistent results from well-designed, executed, and analyzed experiments.