eprintid: 10158627
rev_number: 7
eprint_status: archive
userid: 699
dir: disk0/10/15/86/27
datestamp: 2022-11-08 17:28:01
lastmod: 2022-11-08 17:28:01
status_changed: 2022-11-08 17:28:01
type: article
metadata_visibility: show
sword_depositor: 699
creators_name: Reynolds, James P
creators_name: Hobson, Alice
creators_name: Ventsel, Minna
creators_name: Pilling, Mark A
creators_name: Marteau, Theresa M
creators_name: Hollands, Gareth J
title: Effect of visualising and re-expressing evidence of policy effectiveness on perceived effectiveness: a population-based survey experiment
ispublished: inpress
divisions: B14
divisions: J81
divisions: B16
divisions: UCL
keywords: policies, acceptability, obesity, nudge, communication
note: Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
abstract: Communicating evidence that a policy is effective can increase public support although the effects are small. In the context of policies to increase healthier eating in out-of-home restaurants, we investigate two ways of presenting evidence for a policy's effectiveness: (i) visualising and (ii) re-expressing evidence into a more interpretable form. We conducted an online experiment in which participants were randomly allocated to one of five groups. We used a 2 (text only vs visualisation) × 2 (no re-expression vs re-expression) design with one control group. Participants (n = 4500) representative of the English population were recruited. The primary outcome was perceived effectiveness and the secondary outcome was public support. Evidence of effectiveness increased perceptions of effectiveness (d = 0.14, p < 0.001). There was no evidence that visualising, or re-expressing, changed perceptions of effectiveness (respectively, d = 0.02, p = 0.605; d = −0.02, p = 0.507). Policy support increased with evidence but this was not statistically significant after Bonferroni adjustment (d = 0.08, p = 0.034, α = 0.006). In conclusion, communicating evidence of policy effectiveness increased perceptions that the policy was effective. Neither visualising nor re-expressing evidence increased perceived effectiveness of policies more than merely stating in text that the policy was effective.
date: 2022-10-19
date_type: published
publisher: Cambridge University Press (CUP)
official_url: https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2022.32
oa_status: green
full_text_type: pub
language: eng
primo: open
primo_central: open_green
verified: verified_manual
elements_id: 1986063
doi: 10.1017/bpp.2022.32
lyricists_name: Hollands, Gareth
lyricists_id: GJHOL68
actors_name: Hollands, Gareth
actors_id: GJHOL68
actors_role: owner
full_text_status: public
publication: Behavioural Public Policy
issn: 2398-063X
citation:        Reynolds, James P;    Hobson, Alice;    Ventsel, Minna;    Pilling, Mark A;    Marteau, Theresa M;    Hollands, Gareth J;      (2022)    Effect of visualising and re-expressing evidence of policy effectiveness on perceived effectiveness: a population-based survey experiment.                   Behavioural Public Policy        10.1017/bpp.2022.32 <https://doi.org/10.1017/bpp.2022.32>.    (In press).    Green open access   
 
document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10158627/1/Reynolds20xx%20BPP%20-%20visualising%20policy%20evidence.pdf