Gaining Hearts & Minds: Multi-country Conjoint Experiments on Public Diplomacy

• In Event: Public Audiences as Constraints on Foreign Policymaking

Abstract

Does public diplomacy projects help create positive perceptions about the sender country? The successful implementation of foreign policy projects that aim to gain "hearts and minds" of the public in a target country requires proper understanding of public support of these projects within a recipient country and within a donor country. While hundreds of millions of dollars are expended in the name of public diplomacy, empirical research examining the effects of such projects are rare. Existing studies of soft power or public diplomacy have investigated public support of a foreign policy project either from a donor perspective or from a recipient perspective, missing the fact that the continuance of the project requires public support from both sides. Using an original large scale survey project covering 16 countries and over 32,000 respondents, we investigate public views of donor countries as well as recipient countries toward foreign policy projects that aim to gain "hearts and minds" of the public in a foreign country. We also compare the results from conjoint and survey experimental approaches and highlight the differences between using the two approaches.

Authors

• Inbok Rhee, KDI School of Public Policy and Management

• Jong Hee Park, Seoul National University

• Sung Eun Kim, Korea University

• Joonseok Yang, Sungkyunkwan University