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Biases in information selection and processing: Survey evidence from the pandemic

Faia,Ester
; 
Fuster,Andreas
; 
Pezone,Vincenzo
; 
Zafar,Basit
Abstract
We conduct two survey experiments to study which information people choose to consume and how it affects their beliefs. In the first experiment, respondents choose between optimistic and pessimistic article headlines related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and are then randomly shown one of the articles. Respondents with more pessimistic prior beliefs tend to prefer pessimistic headlines, providing evidence of confirmation bias. Additionally, respondents assigned to the less preferred article discount its information. The second experiment studies the role of partisan views, uncovering strong source dependence: news source revelation further distorts information acquisition, eliminating the role of priors in article choice.
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Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Date
2024-05
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Tilburg University Research Output Collection
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belief updating, confirmatory biases, endogenous information acquisition, media polarization, source dependence, COVID-19, D84 - Expectations ; Speculations, D91 - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making, E71 - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social and Cognitive Factors on the Macro Economy, I12 - Health Behavior
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Faia, E, Fuster, A, Pezone, V & Zafar, B 2024, 'Biases in information selection and processing: Survey evidence from the pandemic', Review of Economics and Statistics, vol. 106, no. 3, pp. 829-847. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest_a_01187
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14602/79881
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