Distrust in Experts and the Origins of Disagreement

Alice Hsiaw and Ing-Haw Cheng

No 110, Working Papers from Brandeis University, Department of Economics and International Business School

Abstract: Individuals often must learn about a state of the world when both the state and the credibility of information sources (experts) are uncertain. We argue that learning in these 'rank-deficient' environments may be subject to a bias that leads agents to over-infer expert quality. Agents who encounter information or experts in different order disagree about substance because they endogenously disagree about the credibility of each others' experts, as first impressions about experts have long-lived influences on beliefs about the state. This arises even though agents share common priors, information, and biases, providing a theory for the origins of disagreement. Our theory helps explain why disagreement about substance and expert credibility often go hand-in-hand and is hard to resolve in a wide-range of issues where agents share common information, including economics, climate change, and medicine.

Pages: 62 pages
Date: 2016-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-hpe, nep-mic and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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http://www.brandeis.edu/economics/RePEc/brd/doc/Brandeis_WP110.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Distrust in experts and the origins of disagreement (2022)
Working Paper: Distrust in Experts and the Origins of Disagreement (2018)
Working Paper: Distrust in Experts and the Origins of Disagreement (2017)
Working Paper: Distrust in Experts and the Origins of Disagreement (2016)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:brd:wpaper:110

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