Persuasion in Finance

Sendhil Mullainathan and Andrei Shleifer

No 11838, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: Persuasion is a fundamental part of social activity, yet it is rarely studied by economists. We compare the traditional economic model, in which persuasion is communication of objectively valuable information, with a behavioral model, in which persuasion is an effort to fit the message into the audience's already held beliefs. We present a simple formalization of the behavioral model, and compare the two models using data on financial advertising in Money and Business Week magazines over the course of the internet bubble. The evidence on the content of the persuasive messages is broadly consistent with the behavioral model of persuasion.

JEL-codes: G11 G14 M3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cfn, nep-fin, nep-fmk, nep-mkt and nep-pke
Note: AP CF
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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