Experimental Evidence on the Impact of Policy Transparency on Policy Understanding, and Policy Support

Abstract

This study examines the impact of policy transparency on citizens’ levels of policy understanding and support for a hypothetical policy. Specifically, we propose that the effects of transparency on understanding are heavily contingent upon the way government information is presented. Further, we suggest that greater policy understanding will be associated with higher levels of policy support. We examine these relationships using a survey experiment that draws upon a nationally representative panel of citizens. The results demonstrate that effects of policy transparency on policy understanding are heavily contingent upon presentation – participants exposed to more detailed information about the policy understood the policy worse than those exposed to less detailed information. In turn, objective levels of understanding are associated with lower levels of policy support. As such, our findings suggest the presence of a positive indirect effect of policy transparency on policy support. Our study also shows that an individual’s sense of understanding predicts greater policy support among citizens with a poor objective understanding of the policy. Implications for theory and research are discussed.