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The battle of opinion: dynamic information revelation by ideological senders

Author

Listed:
  • Arnold Polanski

    (University of East Anglia Norwich Research Park)

  • Mark Quement

    (University of East Anglia Norwich Research Park)

Abstract

Two informed and interested parties (senders) repeatedly send messages to an uninformed party (public). Senders face a trade-off between propagating their favoured opinions, possibly by lying, and maintaining a high audience (or market share), as the state is occasionally revealed and lies cause audiences to switch to the competitor. We fully characterize a focal Markov perfect equilibrium of this game and discuss the impact of exogenous parameters on the truthfulness of equilibrium reporting. In particular, we find that senders’ lying propensities are strategic complements so that increasing one sender’s bias decreases both senders’ truthfulness. We also analyse the role of polarization across senders.

Suggested Citation

  • Arnold Polanski & Mark Quement, 2023. "The battle of opinion: dynamic information revelation by ideological senders," International Journal of Game Theory, Springer;Game Theory Society, vol. 52(2), pages 463-483, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:jogath:v:52:y:2023:i:2:d:10.1007_s00182-022-00826-z
    DOI: 10.1007/s00182-022-00826-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Information; Externalities; Communication; Polarization;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods

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