000			01663nam a22001457a 4500
999			_c517068 _d517068
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100			_aBarkat, Saar Alon _926014
245			_aThe emotive effect of government branding on citizens' trust and its boundaries: Does the personal relevance of the policy issue matter?
260			_aPublic Administration
300			_a98(3), Sep, 2020: p.551-569
520			_aRecent studies have demonstrated the potency of government branding to enhance citizens' trust in government organizations and policies. In addition, studies have pointed to the detrimental implications of this emotive effect, mainly its ability to compensate for organizations' poor functioning, and accordingly to elicit undue trust. In light of these concerns, this study explores the boundaries of governments' persuasion of citizens through branding and symbolic communications. Building on social psychology and marketing research, I hypothesize that citizens are less susceptible to persuasion by branding the more they perceive the policy issue as personally relevant. I test this expectation through a survey experiment, focused on air pollution policy in Israel, exploiting the natural variation in the perceived personal relevance between citizens residing in a polluted area in the country and others. The results indicate that even high levels of perceived personal relevance do not attenuate the effect of symbolic brand elements. This means that the boundaries of persuasion and manipulation through branding are wider than expected. – Reproduced
773			_aPublic Administration
906			_aPOLLUTION - ISRAEL
942			_cAR