Big Data and Trust in Public Policy Automation

Big data is everywhere, both in and out of public policy. Though a rich data source, what is the impact of big data beyond the research community? We suggest such that invoking big data-related terms acts as a heuristic for assumed algorithmic quality. Such an assumption leads to greater trust in automation in public policy decision-making. We test this “big-data-effect” expectation using four tests including a conjoint experiment embedded in a...