Citizen Judgment of Misbehaving in City Hall: Experimental Evidence of the Role of Demographic Factors and Behavioral Intentions

EasyChair Preprint no. 1153

Abstract

Social equity research provides evidence of inequities at all levels of government and within diverse policy domains ranging from education to healthcare to public transportation and the environment. Similarly, the human resource management literature finds workplace disparities, such as those related to unequal pay or assessment of performance resulting from biases and stereotypes of age, gender, and race. Citing theoretical and practical limitations of viewing these factors in isolation, scholars increasingly advocate for social equity research that accommodates intersectionality and the reality of simultaneous membership in multiple identity categories.This study extends the intersectionality conversation into representative bureaucracy, ethics, and public opinion, exploring the effects of particular demographic profiles of government officials on citizen attitudes toward such actors and their behaviors. Specifically, the paper’s research questions ask: Are citizen judgments of city managers’ policy violations driven by gender, age, and race or a confluence of these factors? Are patterns of citizen judgment of rule breaking city managers of specific gender-race-age profiles similar for violations driven by prosocial versus self-interested motives? And, do similar patterns emerge with citizen response to city managers accused of corruption? Using survey experiments, the authors test for main and interaction effects of gender, race, age, and violation intentions on citizens' hypothetical punishments and moral outrage. The study contributes empirical evidence for social equity discussions related to disparities existing at the intersection of multiple identity categories while incorporating the effects of behavioral intentions of government leaders. Findings have implications for management of diversity and inclusion as well as leadership and ethics in public service.

Keyphrases: citizen judgment, experiment, Intersectionality

@Booklet{EasyChair:1153,
  author = {Casey Fleming and Candice Bodkin},
  title = {Citizen Judgment of Misbehaving in City Hall: Experimental Evidence of the Role of Demographic Factors and Behavioral Intentions},
  howpublished = {EasyChair Preprint no. 1153},

  year = {EasyChair, 2019}}