A preregistered experiment with six vignettes tested how people assign blame for a public service failure based on government downsizing methods. The study produced four main findings, including that a 'chainsaw' approach leads to more blame for leaders than a 'scalpel' approach. The data was authored by James Caillier and is hosted on Harvard Dataverse.
Use Cases
- Analyze blame attribution patterns based on descriptions of downsizing methods.
- Test hypotheses about public perception of government leadership using experimental vignette data.
- Compare the effects of 'chainsaw' versus 'scalpel' policy approaches on public opinion.
Strengths
- Data comes from a preregistered experiment, which suggests a structured research design.
- The study design includes six distinct experimental vignettes for comparison.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
Provenance
- Source
- Harvard Dataverse
- Collection Method
- Preregistered experiment with respondents randomly assigned to one of six vignettes.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-06-17 09:55:28; freshness should be verified.