Individualized Text Messages about Public Services Fail to Sway Voters: Evidence from a Field Experiment on Ugandan Elections

Ryan S Jablonski,Mark T Buntaine,Paula M Pickering,Daniel L Nielson

doi:10.1017/xps.2021.15

Abstract

AbstractMobile communication technologies can provide citizens access to information that is tailored to their specific circumstances. Such technologies may therefore increase citizens’ ability to vote in line with their interests and hold politicians accountable. In a large-scale randomized controlled trial in Uganda (n = 16,083), we investigated whether citizens who receive private, timely, and individualized text messages by mobile phone about public services in their community punished or rewarded incumbents in local elections in line with the information. Respondents claimed to find the messages valuable and there is evidence that they briefly updated their beliefs based on the messages; however, the treatment did not cause increased votes for incumbents where public services were better than expected nor decreased votes where public services were worse than anticipated. The considerable knowledge gaps among citizens identified in this study indicate potential for communication technologies to effectively share civic information. Yet the findings imply that when the attribution of public service outcomes is difficult, even individualized information is unlikely to affect voting behavior.

Highlights

The rapid spread of mobile phones in low-income countries enables users to gain new information directly relevant to their well-being, including prevailing prices at markets, opportunities for employment, and business ideas
We investigate whether individualized messages about the comparative quality of public services that individual voters deemed most important changed those voters’ choices in local Ugandan elections
We provided information privately about the public service respondents stated was most relevant to their vote choice and analyzed the effects conditional on voters’ prior beliefs about politicians’ performance

Summary

Introduction

The rapid spread of mobile phones in low-income countries enables users to gain new information directly relevant to their well-being, including prevailing prices at markets, opportunities for employment, and business ideas. Several studies have investigated interventions and circumstances that promote information sharing from citizens to public officials using mobile phones (Ferrali et al, 2020; Grossman, Humphreys and Sacramone-Lutz, 2014; Grossman, Humphreys and Sacramone-Lutz, 2020; Buntaine, Nielson and Skaggs, 2019). The available evidence does not indicate that this kind of information sharing causes meaningful changes in the provision of public services (Grossman, Platas and Rodden, 2018; Buntaine, Hunnicutt and Komakech, 2020)

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