Negative media reporting and its effects on performance information use in public spending
基于回避责备理论，通过实验发现负面媒体报道会增加公众对公共服务的支出意愿，尤其是对低绩效服务，并影响决策前的信息搜索过程。
Translating performance information about public services into spending allocations is difficult. Drawing on blame-avoidance theory, we propose that negative media reporting affects the rationale for spending public resources for public services. A process tracing laboratory experiment shows that negative media reporting increases the willingness to spend more money for public services, particularly on a relatively low-performing public service. Furthermore, we find that negative media reporting shifts participants’ attention in the predecisional information search process towards performance information on the relatively low-performing public service. The paper helps explain decision makers’ use and interpretation of performance information in spending allocations.