Citizen (Dis)satisfaction: An Experimental Equivalence Framing Study

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12337
• Published date: 01 May 2015
• Date: 01 May 2015

Asmus Leth Olsen is assistant profes-

sor in the Department of Political Science at

the University of Copenhagen. His research

focuses on the effects of performance

information, political and administrative

psychology, behavioral public administra-

tion, and the application of experimental

methods in public administration. His

work has appeared in journals such as

Political Behavior, Public Choice, and

Judgment and Decision Making.

E-mail: ajlo@ifs.ku.dk

Citizen (Dis)satisfaction: An Experimental Equivalence Framing Study 469

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 75, Iss. 3, pp. 469–478. © 2015 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.12337.

Asmus Leth Olsen

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Abstract:  is article introduces the importance of equivalence framing for understanding how satisfaction measures

af‌f ect citizens’ evaluation of public services. Does a 90 percent satisfaction rate have a dif‌f erent ef‌f ect than a logically

equivalent 10 percent dissatisfaction rate? Two experiments were conducted on citizens’ evaluations of hospital services

in a large, nationally representative sample of Danish citizens. Both experiments found that exposing citizens to a

patient dissatisfaction measure led to more negative views of public service than exposing them to a logically equivalent

satisfaction metric.  ere is some support for part of the shift in evaluations being caused by a negativity bias: dissatis-

faction has a larger negative impact than satisfaction has a positive impact. Both professional experience at a hospital

and prior exposure to satisfaction rates reduced the negative response to dissatisfaction rates.  e results call for further

study of equivalence framing of performance information.

Practitioner Points

•  e valence (positive/negative) of performance information can have substantial ef‌f ects on citizens’

perception of public services—even if the underlying performance is exactly the same.

• Presenting citizens with a dissatisfaction rate of 10 percent induces a much more negative evaluation of public

services than presenting them with a logically equivalent satisfaction rate of 90 percent.

• Policy makers must carefully consider how minor equivalent changes in the presentation of performance

information can induce large shifts in citizens’ perceptions of public service performance.

 e article advances this research agenda along two

lines. First, it introduces the importance of equiva-

lence framing for our understanding of how satisfac-

tion measures af‌f ect citizens’ evaluations of public

services (Druckman 2004; Levin, Schneider, and

Gaeth 1998). Specif‌i cally, it points out that logi-

cally equivalent changes to the valence of satisfaction

measures can have large ef‌f ects on citizens’ subsequent

evaluations of public services.  e trivial substitu-

tion of a 90 percent satisfaction rate for a 10 percent

dissatisfaction rate may transform positive associations

and memories into negative ones for the exact same

underlying information, which, in turn, shifts citizens’

evaluations of the data.  e article tests this hypoth-

esis by employing two experimental studies using a

large-scale, nationally representative sample of Danish

citizens (n = 3,443). It will highlight just how sensi-

tive the ef‌f ect of performance measures on citizens’

perceptions of public services is to minor changes in

the descriptive valence.

Second, the article of‌f ers an explanation of the

potency of equivalency frames from the basis of

a negativity bias.  e negativity bias implies that

“negative events are more salient, potent, dominant

Citizen (Dis)satisfaction: An Experimental

Equivalence Framing Study

Citizen and user satisfaction surveys have

become a widespread performance informa-

tion metric across countries, services, and

levels of government (Bouckaert, Van de Walle, and

Kampen 2005; Stipak 1980). Citizen satisfaction is

seen as a key way of overcoming the many dif‌f‌i cul-

ties of measuring actual outcomes in the public sector

by applying more subjective user-centered measures

rather than objective quality or output metrics

(Bouckaert and Van de Walle 2003; Folz 1996;

Holzer and Yang 2004). At the same time, there has

been a focus on potential biases in citizen satisfaction

as an indicator of service outcomes (Kravitz 1998;

Stipak 1979; Van de Walle and Van Ryzin 2011;

Van Ryzin 2013; Van Ryzin et al. 2004; Williams

1994). However, there has been little to no focus on

the potential biases that publicly available satisfac-

tion measures induce in the attitudes and behaviors

of citizens and policy makers.  is article turns its

focus to how malleable citizens’ evaluations of public

services are when citizens are confronted with satisfac-

tion measures of dif‌f erent valence but with equivalent

information content.  at is, how does a positive

versus a negative framing of the exact same level of

satisfaction af‌f ect citizens’ perceptions about a service?