Understanding how the public assesses the performance of complex, intergovernmental efforts such as sustainability is critical for understanding both managerial decision-making and institutional design. Drawing from the performance and federalism literature, this study investigates the role that distinctive elements of negativity bias play in citizen assessments of intergovernmental performance. In three survey experiments, this study exploits a well-known intergovernmental initiative to explore the effects of episodic performance information on citizen support for varying sustainability-related activities. Two inter-related research questions are addressed. First, does the positive or negative valence of citizen performance assessments vary with the type and scope of activity? Second, does positive or negative performance information tend to dominate in more realistic scenarios in which both types of stimuli interact? The results advance theoretical understanding of public performance with evidence that the type of activity can influence citizen assessments both positively and negatively. Additionally, partisan cues can overwhelm otherwise positive views of performance in some contexts, a concept described in the psychology literature as negativity dominance. The findings add important insights by showing that biased reasoning of citizens is not just a blanket affective association with constant treatment effects across any type of governmental effort, but is contingent on both the activity and

中文翻译：

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政府间可持续性绩效公民评估中的积极性和消极性优势

了解公众如何评估复杂的政府间工作（如可持续性）的绩效对于理解管理决策和机构设计至关重要。本研究利用绩效和联邦主义文献，调查了消极偏见的独特因素在公民对政府间绩效的评估中所起的作用。在三项调查实验中，本研究利用一项著名的政府间倡议来探索情景绩效信息对公民对各种可持续性相关活动的支持的影响。解决了两个相互关联的研究问题。首先，公民绩效评估的积极或消极效价是否因活动类型和范围而异？第二，在两种类型的刺激相互作用的更现实的场景中，积极或消极的表现信息往往占主导地位吗？结果促进了对公共绩效的理论理解，并有证据表明活动类型可以积极和消极地影响公民评估。此外，在某些情况下，党派暗示可能会压倒其他方面对绩效的积极看法，心理学文献中将这一概念描述为消极支配。研究结果表明，公民的偏见推理不仅是一种全面的情感关联，在任何类型的政府工作中都具有持续的治疗效果，而且还取决于活动和 在某些情况下，党派线索可能会压倒其他方面对绩效的积极看法，心理学文献中将这一概念描述为消极支配。研究结果表明，公民的偏见推理不仅是一种全面的情感关联，在任何类型的政府工作中都具有持续的治疗效果，而且还取决于活动和 在某些情况下，党派线索可能会压倒其他方面对绩效的积极看法，心理学文献中将这一概念描述为消极支配。研究结果表明，公民的偏见推理不仅是一种全面的情感关联，在任何类型的政府工作中都具有持续的治疗效果，而且还取决于活动和