President Obama’s 2016 budget calls for an emphasis on evidence-based approaches at all levels of government. This should be a non-partisan no-brainer. Who, after all, can be against rigorous scientific testing of social programs in order to evaluate their effectiveness and efficiency? Well, in fact, lots of people can.
The President’s evidence-based agenda is broad and ambitious. It seeks to build capacity in high-priority areas like child care, disability, job training and service to veterans. In addition it calls for improved access to administration data; in particular making data “legally and practically available for policy development, program evaluation, performance measurement and accountability and transparency efforts.”
At the heart of evidence-based policy making is the hope that impartial evidence will enable lawmakers to transcend the bitter and divisive ideological battles Washington has experienced in recent years. Unfortunately however, impartial evidence is probably less of a cure all for polarization than people think. For conservatives, any evidence that a program is unsuccessful (or not as successful as assumed) becomes the basis of an attack. And for liberals, evidence of failure induces a common psychological trait called cognitive dissonance. Basically, people don’t like to be confronted with information that challenges their long and strongly held beliefs and so they work hard to explain why the data—not the belief—is wrong. To this end, liberals are resistant to believe that programs they have long championed actually do not advance their goals.