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Embedding persuasive features into policy issues: Implications to designing public participation processes

Citation:

Work data:

ISSN: 0740-624X

Alternate URL:
006 file https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2017.11.006

Type of work: Article (academic)

Categories:

e-Government & e-Administration

Abstract:

Public participation is one of the most important tasks for policy making processes, and public authorities are lacking ideas on designing public participation processes facilitating active citizen participation. Based on a persuasion theory, this paper examines if policy issues embedded with persuasive features draw more attention, longer elaboration time and more participation. Particularly preference matching, location matching, social proof and authority are identified as persuasive features in e-participation context and propositions on their impacts on citizens' participation processes are developed. A prototype mobile participation tool is developed to test the propositions and tested by 80 experiment participants in the UK and Turkey. The findings indicate that the mixture of central and peripheral features is most effective in drawing participation while single feature has limitations. This study also argues that the design of e-participation tools needs to consider the psychological aspects of citizens for motivating their participations.

Observations:

Highlights:

  • Persuasive features of policy issues are identified based on central cue and peripheral cues.
  • A prototype system is used to test the impact of persuasive cues in the UK and Turkey.
  • Single persuasion cues are effective for drawing more attention and elaboration but not participation.
  • Mixture of a central and a peripheral cue is most effective for attracting more participation.
  • Policy makers need to design policy-making processes based on the persuasive features.

Hypotheses:

TestHypothesis
SupportedPolicy issues with higher personal relevance enable more elaboration than issues with lower personal relevance.
RejectedThe decision to participate in a policy issue is more likely with preference matching that without preference matching.
SupportedPolicy issues with context relevance are more likely to attract attention than issues without context relevance.
RejectedPolicy issues with context relevance are more likely to induce elaboration than issues without context relevance.
SupportedContext relevance has no effect on participation.
SupportedPolicy issues with social proof are more likely to attract attention than issues without social proof.
SupportedPolicy issues with social proof are more likely to induce elaboration than issues without social proof.
SupportedSocial proof has no effect on participation.
SupportedPolicy issues with personal relevance and authority cues are more likely to attract attention than issues without persuasion features.
SupportedPolicy issues with personal relevance and authority cues are more likely to induce elaboration than issues without persuasion features.
SupportedPolicy issues with personal relevance and authority cues are more likely to achieve participation than issues without persuasion features.