What are you paying

attention to?
Information Selection and
Responsiveness of Political Elites

PhD Proposal – Daniel Cruz

Supervisor: Prof. Anne Rasmussen
 03-05-2023 2

Introduction

• The general interest of my PhD: Politicians’ Information Attention and its

effect on representation and misperceptions about constituents.
• Why politicians pay attention to some information and not other?

• Unconscious Explanation: Heuristics and Biases.

• In this research: Testing Availability Heuristics. Statistical (base-rates) vs

Episodic (relatable-salient) Information. Do politicians pay more
attention to episodic information?
 03-05-2023 3

Statistical vs Episodic Information

• Statistical Information: ...statistics!
• Also known in the psy lit as: base rates (heuristics) or consensus info (attribution).

• Episodic Information: Individual, personal experiences.

• Availability Heuristics: Episodic information is more easily saved and

retrieved (more available) from our memories than base rates.
• Also: Episodic information is more relatable and concrete. Receives individuals’
attention more easily.
 03-05-2023 4

Statistical vs Episodic Information

• Why is this important: If politicians pay more attention to and remember

more from episodic information, then the experiences of whoever
politicians have close will have a strong impact in their assessment of an
issue and their beliefs about constituents’ preferences. Therefore,
episodic information may be an important source of bias.
• - Echo Chamber

• The role of Interest Groups: Interest Groups can drive politicians

attention, making information more available for them. If they can bring
more attention to statistical information, then it can be another source of
bias.
 03-05-2023 5

Research Design

• Survey Experiment in Chile

• Short Survey - 3 or 4 Questions – Via Email
• Why Chile? Practical Reasons
• Population: Congress People + Party Leaders + Majors + Municipal Councils
• Anyone in an elected position (Max N = ~3000)
 03-05-2023 6

Research Design

1) Evaluation of a Public Service (e.g. Hospital):

“Imagine that you know the following about a hospital” – “How would you evaluate
it?”
Treatment 1: Treatment 2:
- Erik complains about the treatment - Erik is happy with the treatment.
received - 10% of the patients complain.
- Only 1% of the patients complain
1) Estimation of Constituents’ Preferences:
Pre-Info + Post Recall “Please Read the following info” (at start) – “Do you
remember…” (at end)
Treatment 1: Treatment 2:
- Juan complains at how complicated - 90% positively evaluates the tax
the tax declaration system is declaration system
1) Framing of Effect Rates:
“What of the following newspaper titles you would be more likely to read? (order
from most to least likely)”
Treatment 1: Treatment 2:
- “Study of Company X shows Y” - “John Complains about Y”
- “Data Shows W” - “Study of X shows W”
- “John Complains about Z” - “Data shows Z”
 03-05-2023 7

Strategies
 03-05-2023 8

Response Rate
• Very short survey (no more than 5 minutes) should help improving
Response Rate
• Reaching Politicians via Email + Phone Calls
• Increasing scope to anyone in an elected position
• Total: ~3000
• Reached via email: ~2000
• Reached via phone: ~800

• Indirect contact via my network

• Response rate I aim (or hope) for: 25% (of ~2000)
 03-05-2023 9

Gantt

Tasks Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul
Project 15/11 – 15/12
Draft

Ext Serv + 01/12 – 20/12

Pay

EPSA Ap. 12/12

15/12 – 10/01
Hiring

Contacts 15/01 – 15/03

Dataset

Exp Qs + 15/12 – 28/02

Pre reg
15/03 – 15/05
Survey
15/05 - 15/06
Prel.
Analysis
01/05 - 15/06
First Draft

EPSA 22/06

23/06 – 31/12
Final
Version