The value of and demand for diverse news sources

We study the value of and the demand for instrumentally-valuable information in a simple decision environment where signals are transparently polarized. We find that in both information aggregation and acquisition, subjects use sophisticated heuristics to counter the polarization in signals. A minor...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inGames and economic behavior Vol. 151; pp. 24 - 41
Main Authors Calford, Evan M., Chakraborty, Anujit
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Inc 01.05.2025
Subjects
Experimental economics
Information acquisition
Information aggregation
Information aggregation
Experimental economics
D90
D81
Information acquisition
D91
Online AccessGet full text
ISSN0899-8256
DOI10.1016/j.geb.2025.02.004

Cover

More Information
Summary:We study the value of and the demand for instrumentally-valuable information in a simple decision environment where signals are transparently polarized. We find that in both information aggregation and acquisition, subjects use sophisticated heuristics to counter the polarization in signals. A minority of subjects (15%) produce precise Bayesian reports, while an additional 59% of subjects produce unbiased reports even when exposed to polarized signals. Subjects placed in a market place of information rarely end up buying polarized signals and instead overwhelmingly opt for diverse information. The demand for diverse information increases as diverse information becomes more valuable and decreases as it becomes more expensive.
ISSN:0899-8256
DOI:10.1016/j.geb.2025.02.004