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Nondistortionary belief elicitation

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  • Marcin Pk{e}ski
  • Colin Stewart

Abstract

A researcher wants to ask a decision-maker about a belief related to a choice the decision-maker made; examples include eliciting confidence or cognitive uncertainty. When can the researcher provide incentives for the decision-maker to report her belief truthfully without distorting her choice? We identify necessary and sufficient conditions for nondistortionary elicitation and fully characterize all incentivizable questions in three canonical classes of problems. For these problems, we show how to elicit beliefs using variants of the Becker-DeGroot-Marschak mechanism.

Suggested Citation

  • Marcin Pk{e}ski & Colin Stewart, 2025. "Nondistortionary belief elicitation," Papers 2506.12167, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2026.
    • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2506.12167
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Charness, Gary & Gneezy, Uri & Rasocha, Vlastimil, 2021. "Experimental methods: Eliciting beliefs," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 189(C), pages 234-256.
    2. Karl Schlag & James Tremewan & Joël Weele, 2015. "A penny for your thoughts: a survey of methods for eliciting beliefs," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 18(3), pages 457-490, September.
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