In a democracy, information exchanges are assumed to affect relative policy preferences and those preferences assumed to persist over periods of legislative policymaking. We implemented an online panel survey with a randomized conjoint preferences within a multi-attribute public policy space. The policy space consisted of spending on education, infrastructure, health insurance, pensions, and welfare programs for poor individuals as well as fiscal retrenchment. Providing information on the poverty rate in the first wave directed respondents’ preferences toward support for welfare programs by either increasing or reallocating the budget. The effects persisted for one year and depended little on respondents’ backgrounds, such as education and income characteristics, or political positions, including preferences on the size of government.