Misperceptions about Others

Leonardo Bursztyn and David Yang

No 29168, NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc

Abstract: People’s perceptions about others play an important role in shaping their own attitudes and behaviors, as well as social norms more broadly. This review presents a meta-analysis of the recent empirical literature that examines perceptions about others in the field. We document a number of stylized facts. Misperceptions about others are widespread, asymmetric, much larger when about out-group members, and positively associated with one’s own attitudes. Experimental treatments to re-calibrate misperceptions generally work as intended; they sometimes lead to meaningful changes in behaviors, though this often occurs only immediately after the treatments. We discuss different conceptual frameworks that could explain the origin, persistence, and rigidity of misperceptions about others. We point to several directions for future research.

JEL-codes: D8 D84 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp, nep-isf and nep-soc
Note: DEV POL
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

Published as Leonardo Bursztyn & David Y. Yang, 2022. "Misperceptions About Others," Annual Review of Economics, vol 14(1).

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.nber.org/papers/w29168.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: Misperceptions About Others (2022)
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:nbr:nberwo:29168

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
http://www.nber.org/papers/w29168

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in NBER Working Papers from National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc National Bureau of Economic Research, 1050 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02138, U.S.A.. Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().