Rational Truth-Avoidance and Self-Esteem

David Andolfatto (), Steeve Mongrain () and Gordon M. Myers
Additional contact information
Steeve Mongrain: Simon Fraser University, http://www.sfu.ca/~mongrain/

Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University

Abstract: We assume that people have beliefs about their abilities, that these generate self-esteem, and that self-esteem is valued intrinsically. Individuals face two choices; one of which strictly dominates the other in a pecuniary sense, but necessarily involves gathering information concerning one's (unobserved) ability. We lay out the circumstances under which an individual may find it rational to reject the dominant choice; an act which, in social psychology is described as avoiding the situation, but which we label truth-avoidance. We find that the incentive to avoid the truth is increasing in income and decreasing in self-esteem, the perceived accuracy of one's self-assessment, and the role which luck plays in generating opportunities.

Keywords: self-esteem; confidence; signal-extraction; truth-avoidance. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D83 D1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cbe and nep-hpe
Date: 2007-05
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations Track citations by RSS feed

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sfu.ca/econ-research/RePEc/sfu/sfudps/dp07-08.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Rational truth-avoidance and self-esteem (2009)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: http://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sfu:sfudps:dp07-08

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
Working Paper Coordinator, Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada
http://www.sfu.ca/economics/research.html

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Discussion Papers from Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University
Address: Department of Economics, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, V5A 1S6, Canada
Contact information at EDIRC.
Series data maintained by Working Paper Coordinator ().