Influential Listeners: An Experiment on Persuasion Bias in Social Networks
Abstract
This paper presents an experimental investigation of persuasion bias, a form of bounded rationality whereby agents communicating through a social network are unable to account for possible repetitions in the information they receive. The results indicate that network structure plays a significant role in determining social influence. However, the most influential agents are not those with more outgoing links, as predicted by the persuasion bias hypothesis, but those with more incoming links. We show that a boundedly rational updating rule that takes into account not only agents' outdegree, but also their indegree, provides a better explanation of the experimental data. In this framework, consensus beliefs tend to be swayed towards the opinions of influential listeners. We then present an effort-weighted updating model as a more general characterization of information aggregation in social networks.Download Info
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Paper provided by University of Milano-Bicocca, Department of Economics in its series Working Papers with number 196.Length: 34 pages
Date of creation: Aug 2010
Date of revision: Aug 2010
Handle: RePEc:mib:wpaper:196
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Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Corazzini, Luca & Pavesi, Filippo & Petrovich, Beatrice & Stanca, Luca, 2012. "Influential listeners: An experiment on persuasion bias in social networks," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(6), pages 1276-1288.
- D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
- D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search, Learning, and Information
- A14 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics - - - Sociology of Economics
- L14 - Industrial Organization - - Market Structure, Firm Strategy, and Market Performance - - - Transactional Relationships; Contracts and Reputation
- Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Social and Economic Stratification
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2010-09-18 (All new papers)
- NEP-CBE-2010-09-18 (Cognitive & Behavioural Economics)
- NEP-EVO-2010-09-18 (Evolutionary Economics)
- NEP-EXP-2010-09-18 (Experimental Economics)
- NEP-MIC-2010-09-18 (Microeconomics)
- NEP-NET-2010-09-18 (Network Economics)
- NEP-SOC-2010-09-18 (Social Norms & Social Capital)
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