Beyond Value: on the Role of Superficial Characteristics in Demand for Information

Aniol Llorente-Saguer, Santiago Oliveros and Ro'i Zultan

No 18743, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: We study non-instrumental value for information when choosing between symmetric and asymmetric information sources. Although symmetry is a seemingly superficial characteristic, we find a systematic preference for a symmetric source over an asymmetric one. We elicit beliefs and find that participants consistently overestimate the instrumental value of the symmetric source yet fail to explain the choice pattern. The analysis of the belief data reveals two types of systematic deviations from Bayesian belief updating: about half of the subjects exhibit base-rate neglect while the others systematically neglect new information more than the base rate. We leverage this understanding of belief formation processes to provide further evidence of intrinsic preferences for symmetry.

Date: 2024-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18743 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
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: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:18743

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP18743

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().