Introduction
EVENTS
To date, most research in the nudge literature has focused on changing the behaviors of citizens; much less work in comparison has examined the impact of nudge on policymakers’ decisions [Gender equity in policy is one area where nudge may help. In 2015, the Canadian federal government adopted the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women’s Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. As part of this declaration, Canada made a commitment to “gender mainstreaming” ensuring that attention to gender equity is central to all governmental activities [Gender equity may have been overlooked by policymakers due to high information processing demands associated with the policymaking environment, where information needs to be gathered and processed quickly. Policymakers simply do not have the time and attentional capacity to learn about and consider every policy issue [Additionally, since politicians tend to be reliant on public opinion for re-election, increasing the salience of political accountability may be an effective way of increasing commitment toward particular issues. A public pledge is a specific strategy for increasing policymakers’ commitment through either verbal or written promise to act, binding a policymaker to a particular behavior and increasing their self-expectations for engaging in that behavior [There is a growing need for Canadian territorial governments to employ methods such as policy briefings and public pledges to increase awareness, understanding, and commitment on the issue of gender equity in policy. As of 2021, the territorial government of the Northwest Territories (NWT) has identified gender equity as a key legislative priority. Furthermore, the Status of Women Council of the NWT is an organization committed to furthering gender equity in the NWT, supporting community outreach and public awareness initiatives on the issue, and working closely with municipal and territorial policymakers.Of the limited research on nudging policymakers, a few studies showed that personal stories (i.e., narratives) provide a persuasive medium for the promotion of behavior change [The first route is immersion in a narrative that transports the reader into the story, such that they vicariously experience events as they unfold. Transportation influences real-world beliefs by suspending the tendency to counterargue about the veracity of the information presented in the story, thereby changing opinions to be in line with the story’s message [A considerable body of research suggests that a single identifiable protagonist is more effective than a larger group to increase aid behavior (i.e., identifiable victim effect [In the current study, we aim to draw attention to gender equity from policymakers in the NWT territorial government by inviting them to attend a policy briefing on gendered impacts of policy and to sign a public pledge to lead and advocate for equity-oriented policymaking. Given that issues of gender are often overlooked by NWT policymakers, we believe that utilizing personalized stories about the gendered impacts of policy would increase emotional engagement and personal responsibility towards the issue. In turn, increased engagement may translate into action in the form of briefing attendance and pledge signing. In the treatment condition, the invitation and briefing include two personal stories or narratives about two individuals who experienced unequal impacts from certain policies. In the control condition, no personal stories are included. We pre-registered one hypothesis, as well as several exploratory analyses at (