Learning About One’s Self

Yves Le Yaouanq () and Peter Schwardmann

Journal of the European Economic Association, 2022, vol. 20, issue 5, 1791-1828

Abstract: To understand why naiveté about present-biased behavior is so prevalent and persistent, our experiment investigates how well participants learn from their past behavior in a real-effort task. While participants display naive present-biased behavior initially, our novel methodology allows us to establish that their updating is unbiased and would eliminate naiveté in the long run. Moreover, learning is unencumbered by a change in the environment. Our results suggest that persistent naiveté does not result from a fundamental inferential bias. However, participants underestimate their future learning—a bias that may lead to underinvestment in experimentation and a failure to activate self-regulation mechanisms.

Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Learning about One's Self (2019)
Working Paper: Learning about one's self (2019)
Working Paper: Learning About One\'s Self (2019)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:jeurec:v:20:y:2022:i:5:p:1791-1828.

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