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The Demand for News: Accuracy Concerns Versus Belief Confirmation Motives

Author

Listed:
  • Felix Chopras
  • Ingar Haaland
  • Christopher Roth

Abstract

We examine the relative importance of accuracy concerns and belief confirmation motives in driving the demand for news. In experiments with US voters, we first vary beliefs about whether an outlet reports the news in a right-wing biased, left-wing biased or unbiased way. We then measure demand for a newsletter covering articles from this outlet. Right-wing voters strongly reduce their demand for left-wing biased news, but not for right-wing biased news. The reverse patterns hold for left-wing voters. These results suggest a trade-off between accuracy concerns and belief confirmation motives. We quantify this trade-off using a structural model and find a similar quantitative importance of both motives.

Suggested Citation

  • Felix Chopras & Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth, 2024. "The Demand for News: Accuracy Concerns Versus Belief Confirmation Motives," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 134(661), pages 1806-1834.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:econjl:v:134:y:2024:i:661:p:1806-1834.
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/ej/ueae019
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Eliaz, Kfir & Spiegler, Ran, 0. "News media as suppliers of narratives (and information)," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society.
    2. Kfir Eliaz & Ran Spiegler, 2024. "News Media as Suppliers of Narratives (and Information)," Papers 2403.09155, arXiv.org.
    3. Ingar Haaland & Julian König & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2024. "Information Experiments," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 271, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    4. Ricardo Alonso & Gerard Padró i Miquel, 2025. "Competitive Capture of Public Opinion," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 93(4), pages 1265-1297, July.
    5. Läpple, Doris & Thoyer, Sophie & Van den Broeck, Goedele & Lécole, Pauline & Sok, Jaap & de Mey, Yann, 2026. "Farmers’ Voices in European Protests: Diverse Complaints, Emotional Tones, and Policy Responses," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    6. Claire Rimbaud & Alice Soldà, 2024. "Avoiding the cost of your conscience: belief dependent preferences and information acquisition," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 27(3), pages 491-547, July.
    7. Ingar Haaland & Christopher Roth & Stefanie Stantcheva & Johannes Wohlfart, 2025. "Understanding Economic Behavior Using Open-Ended Survey Data," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 63(4), pages 1244-1280, December.
    8. Næss, Ole-Andreas Elvik, 2025. "Investigative journalism: Market failures and government intervention through public broadcasters," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    9. Fang, Ximeng & Innocenti, Stefania, 2023. "Increasing the acceptability of carbon taxation: The role of social norms and economic reasoning," INET Oxford Working Papers 2023-25, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    10. Bregolin, Jacopo & Hopfensitz, Astrid & Panova, Elena, 2026. "Using Advice Without Considering Its Quality: A Laboratory Experiment of Demand for Advice," TSE Working Papers 26-1696, Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).
    11. Eleonora Alabrese & Francesco Capozza & Prashant Garg, 2024. "Politicized Scientists: Credibility Cost of Political Expression on Twitter," CESifo Working Paper Series 11254, CESifo.
    12. Siddique, Abu & Vlassopoulos, Michael & Zenou, Yves, 2024. "Leveraging Edutainment and Social Networks to Foster Interethnic Harmony," CEPR Discussion Papers 19034, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    13. Blesse, Sebastian & Gruendler, Klaus & Heil, Philipp & Hermes, Henning, 2025. "The demand for economic narratives," ZEW Discussion Papers 25-054, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    14. Salvatore Nunnari & Giovanni Montari, 2019. "Audi Alteram Partem: An Experiment on Selective Exposure to Information," Working Papers 650, IGIER (Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research), Bocconi University.
    15. Ambrocio, Gene & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2022. "Belief polarization and Covid-19," Bank of Finland Research Discussion Papers 10/2022, Bank of Finland.
    16. Felix Chopra & Christopher Roth & Johannes Wohlfart, 2025. "Home Price Expectations and Spending: Evidence from a Field Experiment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 115(7), pages 2267-2305, July.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • L82 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Services - - - Entertainment; Media

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