Googling the requester: Identity‐questing and discrimination in public service provision

Abstract

Innovating upon previous field experiments and theories of identity‐based discrimination, we test whether public officials are using searches (“identity‐questing”) to profile citizens and acting on latent biases. Pairs of “institutional” and “noninstitutional” requesters send lower and moderate burden freedom of information (FOI) requests—providing no identity cues apart from undistinctive names, e‐mails, and ID numbers—to nearly 700 of Brazil's largest municipalities. Results show institutional requesters receive one‐fifth more responses than noninstitutional comparators. For moderate versus lower burden requests, noninstitutional requesters are 11% less likely to receive a compliant response than their institutional comparators. The only plausible explanation for these results is identity‐questing, a phenomenon that has far‐reaching policy implications. Most of the world's FOI laws, for example, contain vague ID obligations, which translate incoherently from laws to regulation and practice. Results enjoin public service providers to protect the identities of citizens by default or upon request.

Policy-makers’ Processing of AI Algorithmic Advice: ‘Automation Bias’ versus Selective Adherence

“…This theoretical expectation also corresponds to numerous studies demonstrating bureaucrats' inclination to be affected in their decisions by stereotypes and accordingly to discriminate against minorities and disadvantaged groups (e.g. Jilke and Tummers 2018;Jilke, Van Dooren and Rys 2018;Pedersen, Stritch, and Thuesen 2018;Michener et al 2020;Thomann and Rapp 2017;Andersen and Guul 2019;Olson 2016;Gilad and Dahan 2020;Assouline, Gilad and Ben-Nun Bloom, forthcoming).…”

Fit for Purpose? Exploring the Role of Freedom of Information Laws and Their Application for Watchdog Journalism

“…The FOI-specific research suggests that public authorities are more vigilant towards requests from journalists (Kwoka 2018). In Brazil (Michener et al 2019), FOI bureaucrats treated institutional requesters differently and in Canada (Roberts 2005), they were instructed to identify politically sensitive requests that could cause reputation harm and treat these requests separately. Strategies to avoid disclosure can discourage journalists from using FOIA.…”

Media Attention and Bureaucratic Responsiveness

“…Although we focus here on formal information requests, our findings have implications for responsiveness in other contexts of citizen-government interaction, both informational -emails, complaints, and more informal requests for information -and serviceoriented. Previous studies have analyzed responses to information requests as functions of the traits of the citizens that make requests (e.g., partisanship or ethnicity) or of the institutions that respond (e.g., institutional capacity) (Almanzar, Aspinwall, and Crow 2018;Fox, Haight, and Palmer-Rubin 2011;Wood and Lewis 2017;Lagunes and Pocasangre 2019;Poole 2019;Worthy, John, and Vannoni 2017;Gregory Michener et al 2020). The context of such day-today interactions does not remain constant, however.…”