Priming Human-Computer Interactions: Experimental Evidence from Economic Development Mobile Surveys

Abstract

This paper investigates how citizens from developing countries vocalize controversial topics, combining behavioral economics with human-computer interaction. I examine a priming effort to understand how people decide to discuss controversial local subjects, using the human-computer interaction of people with their mobile phones to quantify how attracted people feel to alternative local political economy topics when randomly asked what they think about international aid. The treatment significantly impacted the choice to discuss sanitation, health, poverty, democracy, individual determination, pro-poor support, and happiness. However, the intervention does not affect subjectively ranked preferences.Human-computer interaction approaches may help policy makers understand experimental outcomes.