Human Interest or Hard Numbers? Experiments on Citizens’ Selection, Exposure, and Recall of Performance Information
通过嵌入丹麦全国代表性样本的多项实验，发现公民在评估组织时偏好统计数据，但个案故事在情感影响和即时回忆上更占优势，挑战了硬数据主导绩效信息的假设。
Abstract The abundance of quantitative performance information has motivated multiple studies about how citizens make sense of “hard” performance data. However, research in psychology emphasizes that episodic information (e.g., case stories) often leaves a greater mark on citizens. This contradiction is tested using multiple experiments embedded in a large, nationally representative sample of Danish citizens. The results stress three differences between statistical and episodic data. Citizens have strong preferences for statistical data when asked to evaluate an organization. However, episodic information has in some instances a stronger impact on citizens’ evaluations of an organization and often is more emotionally engaging than statistics. Finally, when asked to immediately recall recent performance information about public services, citizens report more elaborate information about personalized stories and experiences than about statistics. Overall, the results raise questions about the ability of hard performance data to dominate and crowd out episodic performance information .