Fact or fear? Elite and public opinion on the misuse of foreign aid

This article investigates how information on the misuse of foreign aid affects support for aid among citizens and politicians. It draws on original survey data and experiments with a representative sample of 2,205 UK citizens and 117 UK parliamentarians. The findings show a significant public backlash against foreign aid when misuse is revealed. This backlash is not confined to the country where the scandal occurred but spills over to other aid recipients, and a strong political response from the donor government does not offset this effect. UK parliamentarians also become less supportive of aid to the country implicated in the scandal, but do not display the broader contagion effects observed among citizens. These findings have important implications for the literature on public support for aid and our understanding of how citizens and elites update their prior beliefs about foreign policy tools.