Biases in Information Selection and Processing: Survey Evidence from the Pandemic

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Faia, Ester; Fuster, Andreas; Pezone, Vincenzo; Zafar, Basit
• 署名单位: Goethe University Frankfurt; Centre for Economic Policy Research - UK; Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology Domain; Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne; Swiss Finance Institute (SFI); Tilburg University; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; National Bureau of Economic Research
• 刊物名称: REVIEW OF ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0034-6535
• DOI: 10.1162/rest_a_01187
• 发表日期: 2024-05
• 页码: 829-847
• 关键词: media bias; polarization; consumption; ECONOMICS

摘要

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.