Public officials’ motivated reasoning and their interpretation of policy information

Abstract

Evidence based policy making is premised on the idea that policymakers use policy information in an accurate and unbiased way. However, the interpretation and application of policy information is a cognitive process open to misinterpretation and bias, especially in politically salient policy environments. In this generalization and extension replication, we conduct two randomized survey experiments to test the effects of motivated reasoning and political salience on public officials’ ability to accurately interpret policy information. The results indicate limited support for motivated reasoning, and we find no evidence suggesting that political salience affects officials’ accurate and unbiased interpretation of policy information.