Learning About One's Self

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Le Yaouanq, Yves; Schwardmann, Peter
• 署名单位: Institut Polytechnique de Paris; Ecole Polytechnique; ENSAE Paris; University of Munich; Carnegie Mellon University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC ASSOCIATION
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1542-4766
• DOI: 10.1093/jeea/jvac012
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 1791-1828
• 关键词: correlation neglect; INFORMATION; procrastination; deadlines; BIAS; overconfidence; performance; CONTRACT

摘要

To understand why naivete about present-biased behavior is so prevalent and persistent, our experiment investigates how well participants learn from their past behavior in a real-effort task. While participants display naive present-biased behavior initially, our novel methodology allows us to establish that their updating is unbiased and would eliminate naivete in the long run. Moreover, learning is unencumbered by a change in the environment. Our results suggest that persistent naivete does not result from a fundamental inferential bias. However, participants underestimate their future learning-a bias that may lead to underinvestment in experimentation and a failure to activate self-regulation mechanisms.