Since the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and its increased use in the public sector, there has been a two-fold debate in practice and academia about the relationship between transparency and...Show moreSince the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) and its increased use in the public sector, there has been a two-fold debate in practice and academia about the relationship between transparency and trust. On the one hand, transparency can create an open government culture and improve trust; on the other hand, transparency confuses citizens and leads to delegitimization of government. This research contributes to the debate by examining the effect of algorithmic decision-making transparency on institutional trust and procedural fairness's role in this relationship through a quantitative vignette study focusing on enforcing parking fines. The study distinguishes itself from others by measuring institutional trust by three dimensions (competence, benevolence, and honesty) and transparency by two dimensions (accessibility and explainability). The results reveal that: (1) accessibility increases institutional trust and trust in the competence and benevolence of the institution; (2) explainability increases institutional trust and trust in the competence of the institution; (3) procedural fairness negatively affects the relationship between accessibility and institutional trust and between accessibility and trust in the competence of the institution; (3) procedural fairness positively affects the relationship between explainability and trust in the benevolence of the institution. These results imply that institutional trust is multidimensional and can be influenced differently but that access and explainability of decision-making increase trust. Furthermore, local governments can make greater use of the Dutch algorithm registry to provide citizens with access and explanations of decision-making to enhance trust in the institution.Show less
Wind turbines are an effective source of energy for climate change mitigation. The placement of windmills is often challenged by residents in the local area. In a previous study, it was found that...Show moreWind turbines are an effective source of energy for climate change mitigation. The placement of windmills is often challenged by residents in the local area. In a previous study, it was found that given to local residents about the implementation of windmills in the local area could be an important factor in local wind turbine project acceptance, and that this relationship was mediated by perceived procedural fairness and trust in the wind turbine company. The focus of this experimental scenario study (N=679) is to replicate and build on this previous study. In the current study, participants were asked to empathize with the residents of a fictional town, where a wind farm would be located. Depending on the experimental group, voice expectations were manipulated by randomly assigning to three manipulation groups where they were told that it was common, uncommon that they would be given voice by the company and another group where no voice expectations were manipulated. Participants then either received an opportunity to voice their opinion or received no voice opportunity. In this study it was predicted and found that receiving voice compared to no voice would increase wind turbine project acceptance. It was also predicted and found that this relationship was sequentially mediated by perceived procedural fairness via perceived trust. And lastly, it was predicted that voice expectation served as a mediator between voice opportunity and acceptance. Both of these findings replicated previous research. No significant interaction effect of voice opportunity and voice expectations was found.Show less
Wind energy companies intend to successfully implement wind farms without opposition from the local residents. The present study experimentally investigated the effect of local residents' “voice”...Show moreWind energy companies intend to successfully implement wind farms without opposition from the local residents. The present study experimentally investigated the effect of local residents' “voice” on perceived procedural fairness of the decision-making procedure and willingness to accept the wind energy project's implementation. An online survey was published on Prolific, in which participants (N = 199) were asked to sympathize with a fictitious town where they were residents and a wind farm project was planned. The experimental conditions were; no-voice, voice and pseudo-voice. The amount of “say” the residents had in the decision-making process of the project and whether their input was taken into account, differed between conditions. I hypothesized and found that participants who had an opportunity to voice their opinion and had their ideas implemented, perceive the decision-making process as more fair than those who were in a no-voice or pseudo-voice situation. Contrary to my prediction, participants in the pseudo-voice situation perceived the process as more fair (instead of less fair) than those in the no-voice situation. As predicted, the voice situation led to a greater willingness to accept the project than the pseudo-voice and slightly higher than the no-voice situation. I further predicted that the no-voice situation would lead to higher acceptance than the pseudo-voice situation, but found no difference in acceptance between the two conditions. Finally, the results provided evidence for the idea that effects of voice procedure on project acceptance are mediated by perceived procedural fairness of the decision-making process when comparing voice to pseudo-voice and no-voice situations.Show less
