This study examines how citizens' attitudes toward government are affected by verifying or correcting their prior knowledge of governmental policy concerning the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a survey experiment, we asked respondents about their knowledge of the stimulus check provided by local governments in South Korea. We then provided the correct answer to half of the respondents at random. For outcome variables, we measured satisfaction with the stimulus check, trust in the government, and intention to pay extra taxes. We found that only verifying correct prior knowledge, not correcting incorrect knowledge, improved respondents' attitudes. Subgroup analysis revealed that the verification effect occurred specifically among those whose income remained stable during the pandemic, regardless of whether their political orientation was congruent with their local government. Our findings suggest that rather than publicly releasing policy-related information to citizens indiscriminately, verifying the information through closer communication with well-informed citizens can be a more effective strategy to improve citizens' policy efficacy and attitudes toward the government.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行下政策信息和公民对政府态度的验证：来自韩国调查实验的证据

本研究通过验证或纠正公民对有关 COVID-19 大流行的政府政策的先验知识来考察公民对政府的态度如何受到影响。通过一项调查实验，我们询问受访者对韩国地方政府提供的刺激检查的了解情况。然后，我们随机向一半受访者提供了正确答案。对于结果变量，我们衡量了对刺激检查的满意度、对政府的信任以及缴纳额外税款的意愿。我们发现，只有验证正确的先验知识，而不是纠正不正确的知识，才能改善受访者的态度。亚组分析显示，验证效应特别发生在那些在疫情期间收入保持稳定的人身上，无论他们的政治倾向是否与当地政府一致。我们的研究结果表明，与其不加区别地向公民公开发布政策相关信息，不如通过与消息灵通的公民进行更密切的沟通来验证信息，可以成为提高公民政策效力和对政府态度的更有效策略。