False Consensus in Economic Agents
Abstract
In an incentivized experiment we identify a powerful and ubiquitous bias: individuals regard their own characteristics and choices as more common than is the case. We establish this \false consensus" bias in terms of happiness, political stance, mobile phone brand and on the attitude to deference in a hypothetical restaurant choice, and show that it is not limited to the distribution of hard to observe characteristics and choices but also to weight and height. We also show that the bias is not driven by the fact that the tallest, happiest, most left/right-wing, etc. are more salient.Download Info
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Paper provided by Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE) in its series CAGE Online Working Paper Series with number 54.Length:
Date of creation: 2011
Date of revision:
Handle: RePEc:cge:warwcg:54
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Keywords: false consensus; saliency; biased beliefs; happiness; politics; height; weight.;Other versions of this item:
- Proto, Eugenio & Sgroi, Daniel, 2011. "False Consensus in Economic Agents," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 968, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
- D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Economics; Underlying Principles
- C83 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Data Collection and Data Estimation Methodology; Computer Programs - - - Survey Methods; Sampling Methods
- D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations
References
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- Burks, Stephen V. & Carpenter, Jeffrey P. & Götte, Lorenz & Rustichini, Aldo, 2010. "Overconfidence is a Social Signaling Bias," IZA Discussion Papers 4840, Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).
- Engelmann, Dirk & Strobel, Martin, 1999.
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SFB 373 Discussion Papers
1999,66, Humboldt University of Berlin, Interdisciplinary Research Project 373: Quantification and Simulation of Economic Processes.
- Dirk Engelmann & Martin Strobel, 2000. "The False Consensus Effect Disappears if Representative Information and Monetary Incentives Are Given," Experimental Economics, Springer, vol. 3(3), pages 241-260, December.
- Engelmann, D. & Strobel, M., 2000. ""The false consensus effect disappears if representative information and monetary incentives are given"," Open Access publications from Maastricht University urn:nbn:nl:ui:27-4966, Maastricht University.
- Sergio Currarini & Paolo Pin & Matthew O. Jackson, 2007.
"An Economic Model of Friendship: Homophily, Minorities and Segregation,"
Working Papers
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- Sergio Currarini & Matthew O. Jackson & Paolo Pin, 2009. "An Economic Model of Friendship: Homophily, Minorities, and Segregation," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 77(4), pages 1003-1045, 07.
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