Voter information campaigns and political accountability: Cumulative findings from a preregistered meta-analysis of coordinated trials

Journal article

T. Dunning, G. Grossman, M. Humphreys, Susan D. Hyde, Craig McIntosh, G. Nellis, Claire L. Adida, Eric Arias, Clara Bicalho, Taylor C. Boas, Mark T. Buntaine, Simon Chauchard, A. Chowdhury, J. Gottlieb, F. D. Hidalgo, Marcus Holmlund, Ryan S. Jablonski, Eric Kramon, Horacio Larreguy, Malte M. Lierl, J. Marshall, Gwyneth H. McClendon, M. Melo, D. Nielson, Paula M. Pickering, Melina R. Platas, Pablo Querubin, Pia J. Raffler, N. Sircar, N. Sircar
Science Advances, 2019

Semantic Scholar DOI PubMedCentral PubMed

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APA Click to copy
Dunning, T., Grossman, G., Humphreys, M., Hyde, S. D., McIntosh, C., Nellis, G., … Sircar, N. (2019). Voter information campaigns and political accountability: Cumulative findings from a preregistered meta-analysis of coordinated trials. Science Advances.

Chicago/Turabian Click to copy
Dunning, T., G. Grossman, M. Humphreys, Susan D. Hyde, Craig McIntosh, G. Nellis, Claire L. Adida, et al. “Voter Information Campaigns and Political Accountability: Cumulative Findings from a Preregistered Meta-Analysis of Coordinated Trials.” Science Advances (2019).

MLA Click to copy
Dunning, T., et al. “Voter Information Campaigns and Political Accountability: Cumulative Findings from a Preregistered Meta-Analysis of Coordinated Trials.” Science Advances, 2019.

BibTeX Click to copy

@article{t2019a,
  title = {Voter information campaigns and political accountability: Cumulative findings from a preregistered meta-analysis of coordinated trials},
  year = {2019},
  journal = {Science Advances},
  author = {Dunning, T. and Grossman, G. and Humphreys, M. and Hyde, Susan D. and McIntosh, Craig and Nellis, G. and Adida, Claire L. and Arias, Eric and Bicalho, Clara and Boas, Taylor C. and Buntaine, Mark T. and Chauchard, Simon and Chowdhury, A. and Gottlieb, J. and Hidalgo, F. D. and Holmlund, Marcus and Jablonski, Ryan S. and Kramon, Eric and Larreguy, Horacio and Lierl, Malte M. and Marshall, J. and McClendon, Gwyneth H. and Melo, M. and Nielson, D. and Pickering, Paula M. and Platas, Melina R. and Querubin, Pablo and Raffler, Pia J. and Sircar, N. and Sircar, N.}
}

Abstract

A preregistered meta-analysis of six field experiments finds no evidence overall that information campaigns shape voter behavior. Voters may be unable to hold politicians to account if they lack basic information about their representatives’ performance. Civil society groups and international donors therefore advocate using voter information campaigns to improve democratic accountability. Yet, are these campaigns effective? Limited replication, measurement heterogeneity, and publication biases may undermine the reliability of published research. We implemented a new approach to cumulative learning, coordinating the design of seven randomized controlled trials to be fielded in six countries by independent research teams. Uncommon for multisite trials in the social sciences, we jointly preregistered a meta-analysis of results in advance of seeing the data. We find no evidence overall that typical, nonpartisan voter information campaigns shape voter behavior, although exploratory and subgroup analyses suggest conditions under which informational campaigns could be more effective. Such null estimated effects are too seldom published, yet they can be critical for scientific progress and cumulative, policy-relevant learning.