Providing Balanced Risk Information in Surveys Used as Citizen Participation Mechanisms

Despite the ability of surveys to obtain a representative sample of opinions, one drawback to using surveys as mechanisms for citizen participation in environmental policy making is that citizens who respond may be unfamiliar with the issues. This study investigates whether providing balanced information in the survey impacts responses to a series of questions on waste management. Randomly selected residents in five New York counties received one of two survey versions. The ver sions were identical, except one contained information sidebars adjacent to a series of questions on waste management. Analysis showed that while respondents gave similar answers to demographic, behavior, and media usage questions, they responded quite differently to questions about waste management. Recipients of the information sidebars were more certain of their opinions and generally more positive toward the waste management options. The results suggest that providing balanced information in citizen surveys cansometimes lead to...