Motivated Errors

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Exley, Christine L.; Kessler, Judd B.
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; University of Pennsylvania
• 刊物名称: AMERICAN ECONOMIC REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0002-8282
• DOI: 10.1257/aer.20191849
• 发表日期: 2024
• 页码: 961-987
• 关键词: moral wiggle room; Information avoidance; illusory preference; tax salience; altruism; attention; overconfidence; ECONOMICS; image; performance

摘要

Myriad environments allow for the possibility of confusion. Agents may appeal to such confusion-or the possibility of making an honest mistake-to justify their behavior. In three sets of experiments involving thousands of subjects, we document evidence of such motivated errors. We document this evidence in a simple environment in which the scope for errors is small and in more complex environments in which subjects display correlation neglect and an anchoring bias.