Ideological Alignment and Evidence-Based Policy Adoption

Abstract

The implementation of evidence-based policies hinges on the dissemination of evidence to policymakers, a process influenced by the attributes of the sender. We conducted a nationwide RCT with ideologically opposite think tanks, major newspapers, and a research institution with nonsalient ideology to communicate a nonideological, cost-effective policy to local policymakers. Results show a 65 percent increase in policy adoption when informing institutions align ideologically with policymakers. We compare the impact of think tanks versus media outlets on implementation, finding both equally effective when ideologically aligned. We explore three actions where ideology may influence adoption: information exposure, belief updating and implementation.