Cognitive bias in citizens’ perceptions of government performance in response to COVID-19: Evidence from a large-scale survey experiment in China

Abstract

This article explores the cognitive bias in citizens’ perceptions of government performance in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were drawn from a survey experiment by manipulating the performance information frame (positive, neutral, and negative) and source (government, scientists, and unofficial sources) with 4,102 Chinese citizens. Findings show that the effect of information frame and source on citizens’ perceptions of government performance is very weak. Additionally, the heterogeneity tests indicate a gender difference in framing effect, and source effect emerges for those located far away from the pandemic epicenter. Frame and source show an interaction effect in the lower education group. The results call for further research on citizens’ cognitive bias in a crisis context.

Disclosure statement

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest.

Notes

1 We cleaned up the data according to two criteria: (1) We included a question with a fixed option in the questionnaire to exclude irresponsible participants who chose the wrong option, and (2) this platform can record participants’ answer time, so the participants with a response time of under 100 seconds and more than 1,000 seconds were detected, according to a standard of about three times above and below the average response time of 320 seconds.

2 There is one exception: The upper limit of the number of participants in Shandong province was less than or equal to 300.

3 There are also other types of distance, such as travel distance by a train or car. We used straight-line distance for two reasons: First, after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the travel distance made no sense when Wuhan was locked down; second, the straight-line distance is proportional to the travel distance but is more straightforward.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant 71722004, Graduate Scientific Research and Innovation Foundation of Chongqing under Grant CYB20058, and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities under Grant 2020CDJYGRH-YJ02 and 2020CDJSK01XK04.