Can reducing learning costs improve public support for means-tested benefit programs?

This study investigates how efforts to reduce learning costs of means-tested public benefit programs impact public support of these programs and perceived deservingness of program beneficiaries. Focusing on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) in the United States, a well-known means-tested public benefit program, we integrate research from educational psychology with policy feedback theory, predicting that the structure of information about SNAP's application process and eligibility requirements affects learning costs and public attitudes toward this program and its beneficiaries. Testing these predictions through a preregistered dose–response survey experiment, participants are randomly assigned to control or one of three treatment groups, which incrementally alters the structure of SNAP information participants are exposed to. Our findings demonstrate that enhancing the SNAP information structure lowers learning costs and indirectly improves public support and perceived deservingness of beneficiaries. We discuss implications for theory and practice.