Message-sidedness in performance information disclosure and citizens’ perceived accountability

Abstract

ABSTRACT Governments disclose performance information to citizens on the assumption that doing so helps improve public accountability. The previous literature implies that citizens’ interpretations of such information are shaped by the information’s presentation types, however, it is not known whether one-sided messages (only positive information) and two-sided messages (adding negative attributes to the one-sided messages) have different effects on citizens’ perceptions regarding government information disclosure. Drawing on attribution-correspondence theory and utilizing a large-scale survey experiment conducted in Korea, this study demonstrates that two-sided performance message is more effective in improving the citizens’ perceptions of governmental transparency and accountability than one-sided message.