The uninformed budge yet the misinformed buck: performance information and citizen satisfaction

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of performance information on citizen satisfaction in the context of an environmental information disclosure programme in the U.S. Through a survey experiment on a nationally representative sample, it finds that the impact depends on disconfirmation, which is the difference between performance information and citizens’ prior perceptions. However, the impact extends only to the uninformed, who do not have strong prior perceptions, but not to the misinformed, who confidently hold incorrect perceptions. With the misinformed consisting a large portion of the population, the findings have important implications for the use of performance information in public management.