Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: The Consumer Logic of Anti-Government Antagonism

University Of Chicago, Chicago IL

Investigators

Abstract

This research addresses a persistent puzzle across the social sciences: What explains Americans' opposition to government? That is to say, why do Americans evince comparatively low support for redistributive programs, register decreasing trust in government, and offer electoral support to increasingly regressive tax schemes? The projects tests a novel causal explanation, grounded in behavioral economics and social psychology. The explanation proposes that, when evaluating government, citizens import the same consumer frameworks they rely on when making everyday consumer decisions. In other words, they treat government as just another consumer good. Such a framework is inherently ill-equipped to grapple with some of the benefits that government provides. Citizens conclude that government is providing them low "transaction utility" -- that they are getting a raw deal. The research expands on preliminary results to investigate the relationships among transaction utility as it is derived from government, attitudes toward government, and compliance with government rules and norms. Specially, the projects involves three experiments, one in the field and two over the Internet. The survey experiments evaluate the relationship between perceived costs and perceived benefits, and opposition to government. The field experiment tests the relationship between perceived costs and benefits and compliance with government rules and norms. The research relies on insights from behavioral economics, consumer psychology, political science and sociology to answer a question that has bedeviled scholars from across those disciplines. In so doing, the research will chart an interdisciplinary course to help public servants better communicate with citizens.