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Do Maps Matter in Aid Allocation Decisions ?

Researchers believe that seeing information on aid projects and development indicators, like poverty, presented in the form of a map will lead policymakers to allocate aid most efficiently. Using a randomized online experiment, we investigated the effect of data presentation on aid allocation decisions. In addition, we also explored the extent to which study participants are influenced by biased information in their decision making calculus. We hypothesized that seeing data presented in the form of a map will lead to better decisions than if data is presented in the form of a spreadsheet or dense document. Additionally, we hypothesized that the inclusion of biased information with correct factual information will result in inefficient aid allocation decisions. Participants were randomly assigned to groups receiving varying presentations of historical aid information: a long, detailed document that includes information about each district in Malawi (document group), a map with geocoded information and a detailed document (map group), or a spreadsheet containing data and detailed document (spreadsheet group). In addition, each of these groups was randomly assigned detailed documents that included biased emotional stories. Participants were given a specific goal and were asked to decide how to allocate aid based on the information that is provided. Preliminary results suggest that participants in the map group performed better than others and participants seeing emotional stories in their documents made worse allocation decisions than others.