We Spend How Much? Misperceptions, Innumeracy, and Support for the Foreign Aid in the United States and Great Britain

Abstract

Majorities of citizens in high-income countries often oppose foreign aid spending. One popular explanation is that the public overestimates the percentage and amount of taxpayer funds that goes towards overseas aid. Can the framing of aid overcome this innumeracy? We report the results of an experiment examining differences in support for aid spending as a function of the information American and British respondents receive about foreign aid spending. In both nations, providing respondents with information about foreign aid spending as a percentage of the national budget significantly reduces support for cuts. The findings suggest that support for aid can be increased, but significant opposition to aid spending remains.2

The Effect of Geostrategic Competition on Public Attitudes to Aid

“…In all three experiments, the forceful treatment shifted opinions by about 10 percentage points. These treatment effects are somewhat smaller than those found in comparable work in the USA (Hurst et al 2017;Scotto et al 2017) but similar to successful treatments in aid opinion work from Australia and the United Kingdom (Scotto et al 2017;Wood 2018;Wood and Hoy 2018).…”

“…The rationale for this hypothesis was that, in line with existing work, a rational response to the rise of a potentially hostile power in an adjacent region ought to be support for keeping aid flowing as a source of countervailing power. We focused on views about aid cuts, rather than aid increases, as studies have found views on aid cuts are more elastic to experimental treatments (Hurst et al 2017;Scotto et al 2017). (H2) Treating people with information on China's rise will increase the share of people wanting aid focused more on the Pacific.…”

Overseas Credit Claiming and Domestic Support for Foreign Aid

“…This research is exploratory and will inform future research. Our findings contribute knowledge to research that asks whether existing attitudes about foreign aid can be changed (e.g., Nair 2018;Scotto et al 2017).…”

Misperceptions of Chinese Investments in Canada and Their Correction: Evidence from a Survey Experiment

“…Similarly, Gilens (2001) and Howell and West (2009) found that providing relevant facts to interviewees before asking them their opinions led to significant changes in their preferences regarding issues of crime, foreign aid, and education policy. Most recently, Scotto et al (2017) have shown that providing respondents with information about foreign aid spending as a percentage of the national budget significantly reduces support for cuts to that spending.…”