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Fishing for Good News: Motivated Information Acquisition

Author

Listed:
  • Si Chen
  • Carl Heese

Abstract

The literature on motivated reasoning argues that people skew their beliefs to feel moral when acting selfishly. We study information acquisition of decision-makers with a motive to form positive moral self-views and a motive to act selfishly. Theoretically and experimentally, we find that a motive to act selfishly makes individuals 'fish for good news': they are more likely to continue (stop) acquiring information, having received mostly information suggesting that acting selfishly is harmful (harmless) to others. We find that fishing for good news may improve social welfare. Finally, more intelligent individuals have a higher tendency to fish for good news.

Suggested Citation

  • Si Chen & Carl Heese, 2021. "Fishing for Good News: Motivated Information Acquisition," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2021_223v3, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2021_223v3
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    File URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp223
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jeanne Hagenbach & Charlotte Saucet, 2024. "Motivated Skepticism," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) hal-03770685, HAL.
    2. Jeanne Hagenbach & Rachel Kranton, 2023. "Competition, Cooperation, and Motivated Social Perceptions," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03792554, HAL.
    3. Eyting, Markus, 2022. "Why do we discriminate? The role of motivated reasoning," SAFE Working Paper Series 356, Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE.
    4. Jeanne Hagenbach & Charlotte Saucet, 2024. "Motivated Skepticism," Working Papers hal-03770685, HAL.
    5. Pëllumb Reshidi & Alessandro Lizzeri & Leeat Yariv & Jimmy Chan & Wing Suen, 2022. "Individual and Collective Information Acquisition: An Experimental Study," Working Papers 312, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    6. Lata Gangadharan & Philip J. Grossman & Nina Xue, 2022. "Stepping Stone: Identifying self-image concerns from motivated beliefs: Does it matter how and whom you ask?," Monash Economics Working Papers 2022-05, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    7. Jeanne Hagenbach & Charlotte Saucet, 2024. "Motivated Skepticism," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03770685, HAL.
    8. Pëllumb Reshidi & Alessandro Lizzeri & Leeat Yariv & Jimmy Chan & Wing Suen, 2021. "Individual and Collective Information Acquisition: An Experimental Study," CESifo Working Paper Series 9468, CESifo.
    9. Markus Eyting, 2022. "Why do we Discriminate? The Role of Motivated Reasoning," Working Papers 2208, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    10. Gergely Hajdu & Balázs Krusper, 2023. "Choice-induced Sticky Learning," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp349, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    11. Jeanne Hagenbach & Rachel Kranton, 2023. "Competition, Cooperation, and Motivated Social Perceptions," Working Papers hal-03792554, HAL.
    12. Lata Gangadharan & Philip J. Grossman & Nina Xue, 2021. "Identifying self-image concerns from motivated beliefs: Does it matter how and whom you ask?," Monash Economics Working Papers 2021-17, Monash University, Department of Economics.
    13. Hajdu, Gergely & Krusper, Balázs, 2023. "Choice-induced Sticky Learning," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 349, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Motivated Beliefs; Social Preferences; Information Preferences; Bayesian Persuasion; Belief Utility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D90 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - General
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

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