Knowing versus feeling as factors in willingness to provide information tothe census

The Census Bureau's publicity campaigns assume that cooperation with the ce nsus depends on knowledge of how census data are used in the aggregate (e.g ., legislative apportionment and revenue sharing) and that they are not use d at the individual level (i.e., identifying information is kept confidenti al by law). This article compares knowledge about these matters with feelin gs about the census as correlates of willingness to cooperate with a new ce nsus request-disclosing one's Social Security number to facilitate data sha ring (a proposed way of stemming the census's skyrocketing costs and declin ing coverage). Results from a 1996 nationwide survey show that compared wit h feelings, knowledge about census uses is less strongly related to reporte d willingness to provide one's Social Security number. Similarly, whereas k nowledge about census confidentiality taken by itself fails to predict will ingness to provide one's number knowledge in conjunction with feelings clea rly succeeds. Thus affect appears more central than knowledge in understand ing an important aspect of cooperation with the census. (C) 2000 Academic P ress.