Abstract

Citizen-government interactions through performance information have recently gained attention in public administration. To enhance these interactions, governments utilize interactive information presentations to deliver information, in the hope of allowing citizens to make informed decisions. However, there is little empirical evidence on whether the implementation of interactive presentational formats helps citizens to make more accurate decisions. Drawing on information processing and cognitive fit theories, we argue that citizens make more accurate decisions using an interactive information presentation, which reduces the complexity of the task and boosts their cognition. Using a survey experiment, we test the effect of interactive presentation of information on the accuracy of citizens’ decisions. Our findings show that an interactive information presentation, as compared to a static one, increases the accuracy of their decisions. The results suggest that it is essential for governments not only to publish performance information, but also to consider the way in which information is presented, so they can make it more useful to citizens.

摘要

最近，通过绩效信息进行的公民与政府互动在公共行政中引起了关注。为了加强这些互动，政府利用交互式信息演示来传递信息，以期让公民做出明智的决定。然而，很少有经验证据表明交互式演示格式的实施是否有助于公民做出更准确的决定。借鉴信息处理和认知契合理论，我们认为公民使用交互式信息呈现做出更准确的决策，这降低了任务的复杂性并提高了他们的认知。通过调查实验，我们测试了信息的交互式呈现对公民决策准确性的影响。我们的研究结果表明，与静态信息呈现相比，交互式信息呈现提高了他们决策的准确性。结果表明，政府不仅要发布绩效信息，而且要考虑信息的呈现方式，这样他们才能使其对公民更有用。