Responding to problems: actions are rewarded, regardless of the outcome

TY - JOUR

T1 - Responding to problems: actions are rewarded, regardless of the outcome

AU - Olsen, Asmus Leth

PY - 2017/10/21

Y1 - 2017/10/21

N2 - When faced with a problem, policymakers have a choice of action or inaction. Psychological research shows varying results on how individuals evaluate (in)actions conditional on the subsequent outcome. I replicate, generalize, and extend this research into a public management setting with two independent experiments embedded in a nationally representative sample of Danish citizens (n = 2,007). Both experiments show that actions are evaluated more positively than inactions – regardless of the outcome. This finding runs contrary to the inaction (or omission) bias but is consistent with evidence on a “norm of action”, in response to poor performance in political–administrative settings.

AB - When faced with a problem, policymakers have a choice of action or inaction. Psychological research shows varying results on how individuals evaluate (in)actions conditional on the subsequent outcome. I replicate, generalize, and extend this research into a public management setting with two independent experiments embedded in a nationally representative sample of Danish citizens (n = 2,007). Both experiments show that actions are evaluated more positively than inactions – regardless of the outcome. This finding runs contrary to the inaction (or omission) bias but is consistent with evidence on a “norm of action”, in response to poor performance in political–administrative settings.

KW - Attribution

KW - behavioural public administration

KW - blame avoidance

KW - omission bias

U2 - 10.1080/14719037.2017.1281998

DO - 10.1080/14719037.2017.1281998

M3 - Journal article

SN - 1471-9037

VL - 19

SP - 1352

EP - 1364

JO - Public Management Review

JF - Public Management Review

IS - 9

ER -