Abstract: In the context of building a people-centered, service-oriented government, two types of “satisfaction paradox” emerge in government-citizen interactions, manifesting a divergence between citizens’ subjective perceptions and objective performance. These include the anti-public-sector bias, reflected when excellent performance receives negative evaluations, and the pro-public-sector bias, reflected when mediocre performance receives positive evaluations. Both types of paradoxes stem from citizens’ attitude bias toward the public sector (CAB-PS), which undermines the accuracy of public-sector performance assessment and hinders collaborative efforts between citizens and the public sector to improve public services. Therefore, through three studies, we systematically examine the antecedents and consequences of CAB-PS from a behavioral governance perspective.
In study 1, we aim to develop a more suitable measurement instrument for CAB-PS. To address the limitation that existing measurement instruments are not well suited to contexts in which public services are provided exclusively by the public sector, we incorporate the Single Category Implicit Association Test (SC-IAT) technique to develop an indirect measurement instrument with strong reliability and validity that is specifically tailored to public-sector monopoly service provision settings. This instrument will provide a solid measurement foundation for subsequent theoretical and empirical research on CAB-PS. In study 2, we aim to systematically examine the multilevel antecedents of CAB-PS. Although existing research has categorized the factors influencing CAB-PS into three types—social, organizational, and individual—these factors have not yet been subjected to empirical testing. By developing a three-level analytical framework that incorporates social-level factors (social capital and media coverage), organizational-level factors (organizational reputation and red tape), and individual-level factors (prior beliefs and sector expectations), we employ a conjoint experiment to assess the marginal effects and relative importance of these antecedents. In Study 3, we focus on the behavioral consequences of CAB-PS and the boundary conditions of its effects. Given that the association between CAB-PS and coproduction behavior has received limited scholarly attention, we adopt a behavioral governance perspective and use vignette experiments to examine how CAB-PS influences citizens’ coproduction behavior. In addition, we investigate the moderating roles of service agencies’ responsiveness and service recipients’ trust in government in contexts where public services are provided exclusively by the public sector. We also examine the moderating roles of service agencies’ autonomy and service recipients’ sense of efficacy in contexts where public services are provided through competitive arrangements.
This study makes three main theoretical contributions. First, we further clarify the conceptual connotation of CAB-PS and develop a measurement instrument with cross-context validity, thereby providing a solid measurement foundation for future empirical research on CAB-PS. Second, by drawing on Social Information Processing Theory, Signaling Theory, Motivated Reasoning Theory, and Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory, we systematically synthesize and validate perspectives on the factors influencing CAB-PS and compare the relative explanatory power of these theoretical perspectives. Finally, based on a behavioral governance perspective and Theory of Planned Behavior, we reveal the effects of CAB-PS on coproduction behavior and identify the boundary conditions of these effects, thereby enriching the theoretical literature on interventions designed to promote coproduction.
This study makes three main practical contributions. First, it helps public managers design low-cost interventions to mitigate bias and advance the development of a service-oriented government based on public opinion. Second, it helps encourage citizens to contribute resources to public service delivery through both direct and indirect forms of coproduction. Third, it helps public managers recognize and address the potential “satisfaction-coproduction paradox” and promote the governance.

Key words: satisfaction paradox, anti-public sector bias, pro-public sector bias, influencing factors, coproduction