Nudge citizen participation by framing mobilization information: a survey experiment in China

Abstract

Despite many efforts to promote citizen participation, it is necessary to keep exploring more efficient mobilization ways in developing countries. From the bounded rationality perspective, the authors conducted a survey experiment in China to explore the effects of a public–personal interest frame and a gain–loss frame on citizen participation. The results revealed that emphasizing public interests attracted more citizen participation than emphasizing personal interests did, and citizens were more mobilized by losing benefits due to non-participation than they were by gaining benefits due to participation. Moreover, the public–personal frame interacted with the gain–loss frame to influence citizen participation. Specifically, people were more likely mobilized to participate by public interests than by personal interests in a gain frame but not in a loss frame. These findings contribute to the understanding of bounded rationality in citizen participation and indicate the potential of framing effect to nudge citizen participation.

Keywords:

• Citizen participation
• bounded rationality
• framing effect
• interest frame
• negativity bias

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Bingsheng Liu

Bingsheng Liu is a research professor at the School of Public Policy and Administration at the Chongqing University.

Sen Lin

Sen Lin is a doctoral candidate at the Department of Politics at the University of Exeter.

Xiaohao Yuan

Xiaohao Yuan is a teacher at the School of Public Policy and Administration at the Chongqing University.

Siqi He

Siqi He is a doctoral candidate at the School of Public Policy and Administration at the Chongqing University.

Jinfeng Zhang

Jinfeng Zhang is an associate professor at the School of Public Policy and Administration at the Chongqing University.