Getting the (right) message across: How to encourage citizens to report corruption

Abstract

Motivation: Anti-corruption campaigns often include an awareness-raising component that stress the consequences of corruption. Indeed, governments and international donors have spent millions on promoting the evils of corruption. Experience suggests, however, that messages that highlight the prevalence of corruption may backfire by adding to the belief that corruption is normal. Purpose: The article examines the impacts of anti-corruption messages on citizens' willingness to report corruption in Papua New Guinea (PNG). Methods and approach: We present findings from a survey-experiment conducted with over 1,500 respondents in Port Moresby to understand how Papua New Guineans might respond to different messages about corruption and anti-corruption. The messages tested emphasized the legal, moral, and communal aspects of corruption and anti-corruption in PNG, as well as its ubiquity. Findings: Respondents were more likely to be favourable about reporting corruption when they were exposed to anti-corruption messages that emphasized the impacts on their local kinship groups. Messages that emphasized that corruption is widespread, illegal or immoral did not affect respondents' willingness to do something about it. Policy implications: Findings suggest that policymakers must be careful in framing anti-corruption messages, which need to be carefully adapted to the local context and tested before they are deployed. Targeted campaigns can help motivate anti-corruption action if messages focus on the impact of corruption on what matters most to citizens. In the case of PNG, anti-corruption messages should emphasize how corruption has an impact on citizens' family and local community.