The Demand for News: Accuracy Concerns versus Belief Confirmation Motives

Felix Chopra, Ingar Haaland and Christopher Roth

No 24-07, CEBI working paper series from University of Copenhagen. Department of Economics. The Center for Economic Behavior and Inequality (CEBI)

Abstract: We examine the relative importance of accuracy concerns and belief confirmation motives in driving the demand for news. In experiments with US voters, we first vary beliefs about whether an outlet reports thenews in a right-wing biased, left-wing biased, or unbiased way. We then measure demand for a newsletter covering articles from this outlet. Right-wing voters strongly reduce their demand for left-wing biased news, but not for right-wing biased news. The reverse patterns hold for left-wing voters. These results suggest a trade-off between accuracy concerns and belief confirmation motives. We quantify this trade-off using a structural model and find a similar quantitative importance of both motives.

Keywords: News Demand; Media Bias; Accuracy Concerns; Belief Confirmation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 D91 L82 P00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 110
Date: 2024-04-17
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-inv and nep-pol
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Related works:
Journal Article: The Demand for News: Accuracy Concerns Versus Belief Confirmation Motives (2024)
Working Paper: The Demand for News: Accuracy Concerns versus Belief Confirmation Motives (2023)
Working Paper: The Demand for News: Accuracy Concerns versus Belief Confirmation Motives (2022)
Working Paper: The Demand for News: Accuracy Concerns Versus Belief Confirmation Motives (2022)
Working Paper: The Demand for News: Accuracy Concerns versus Belief Confirmation Motives (2022)
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