False Consensus in Economic Agents

Eugenio Proto and Daniel Sgroi

The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) from University of Warwick, Department of Economics

Abstract: In an incentivized experiment we identify a powerful and ubiquitous bias: individuals regard their own characteristics and choices as more common than is the case. We establish this "false consensus" bias in terms of happiness, political stance, mobile phone brand and on the attitude to deference in a hypothetical restaurant choice, and show that it is not limited to the distribution of hard to observe characteristics and choices but also to weight and height. We also show that the bias is not driven by the fact that the tallest, happiest, most left/right-wing, etc. are more salient. Key words: false consensus ; saliency ; biased beliefs ; happiness ; politics ; height, weight. JEL classification: D03 ; C83 ; D84

Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe, nep-exp and nep-neu
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Related works:
Working Paper: False Consensus in Economic Agents (2011)
Working Paper: False Consensus in Economic Agents (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wrk:warwec:968

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