IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/the/publsh/6975.html

Endogenous attention and the spread of false news

Author

Listed:
  • Danenberg, Tuval

    (Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

  • Fudenberg, Drew

    (Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology)

Abstract

We study the impact of endogenous attention in a dynamic social media model. Each period, a user observes a random story and decides whether to share it. Users like sharing true and interesting stories, but identifying false stories requires costly attention. Depending on parameters, the system exhibits either a unique limit or strong path dependence. Endogenous attention responds to changes in false story credibility, so reducing credibility can boost their prevalence. Increases in the exogenous production rate of false stories can be amplified by users' sharing decisions. Increasing users' capacity to reach others amplifies both true and false stories; we identify conditions under which the net effect favors truth over falsehood.

Suggested Citation

  • Danenberg, Tuval & Fudenberg, Drew, 0. "Endogenous attention and the spread of false news," Theoretical Economics, Econometric Society.
    • Handle: RePEc:the:publsh:6975
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://econtheory.org/ojs/index.php/te/article/viewForthcomingFile/6975/46134/1
    File Function: Working paper version. Paper will be copyedited and typeset before publication.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    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

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:the:publsh:6975. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Editor Theoretical Economics The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask Editor Theoretical Economics to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://econtheory.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.