Coarse thinking and persuasion

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Mullainathan, Sendhil; Schwartzstein, Joshua; Shleifer, Andrei
• 署名单位: Harvard University
• 刊物名称: QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0033-5533
• DOI: 10.1162/qjec.2008.123.2.577
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 577-619
• 关键词: media bias; INFORMATION; news; CATEGORIES; disclosure; judgments; DECISION; MARKET

摘要

We present a model of uninformative persuasion in which individuals think coarsely: they group situations into categories and apply the same model of inference to all situations within a category. Coarse thinking exhibits two features that persuaders take advantage of: W transference, whereby individuals transfer the informational content of a given message from situations in a category where it is useful to those where it is not, and (ii) framing, whereby objectively useless information influences individuals' choice of category. The model sheds light on uninformative advertising and product branding, as well as on some otherwise anomalous evidence on mutual fund advertising.