IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/30378.html

Not Learning from Others

Author

Listed:
  • John J. Conlon
  • Malavika Mani
  • Gautam Rao
  • Matthew W. Ridley
  • Frank Schilbach

Abstract

We study social learning using experiments where two people independently learn relevant information and can share it to make accurate private decisions. Across three experiments, people are substantially less sensitive to information others discover than to equally-relevant information they discovered themselves. This holds when they must learn information from others through discussion; when the experimenter perfectly communicates the information; and even when participants observe others’ information with their own eyes. Our results therefore stem not from a failure to elicit information from others but a systematic tendency to underweight it relative to one’s own information. Our findings illustrate a powerful barrier to social learning that might underlie many documented cases of failure to learn from others.

Suggested Citation

  • John J. Conlon & Malavika Mani & Gautam Rao & Matthew W. Ridley & Frank Schilbach, 2022. "Not Learning from Others," NBER Working Papers 30378, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:30378
    Note: DEV
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w30378.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Benjamin Enke, 2020. "What You See Is All There Is," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 135(3), pages 1363-1398.
    2. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1995. "Learning by Doing and Learning from Others: Human Capital and Technical Change in Agriculture," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 103(6), pages 1176-1209, December.
    3. Palfrey, Thomas R. & Wang, Stephanie W., 2009. "On eliciting beliefs in strategic games," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 71(2), pages 98-109, August.
    4. Ulrike Malmendier & Stefan Nagel, 2016. "Learning from Inflation Experiences," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 131(1), pages 53-87.
    5. Ariel BenYishay & A Mushfiq Mobarak, 2019. "Social Learning and Incentives for Experimentation and Communication," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 86(3), pages 976-1009.
    6. Georg Weizsacker, 2010. "Do We Follow Others When We Should? A Simple Test of Rational Expectations," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 100(5), pages 2340-2360, December.
    7. David J. Cooper & John H. Kagel, 2005. "Are Two Heads Better Than One? Team versus Individual Play in Signaling Games," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 95(3), pages 477-509, June.
    8. Simonsohn, Uri & Karlsson, Niklas & Loewenstein, George & Ariely, Dan, 2008. "The tree of experience in the forest of information: Overweighing experienced relative to observed information," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 263-286, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Foucart, Renaud & Zeng, Fanqi & Wang, Shidong, 2025. "The Social Importance of Being Stubborn When an Organization Meets AI," SocArXiv nfgy3_v1, Center for Open Science.
    2. Bouacida, Elias & Foucart, Renaud & Jalloul, Maya, 2025. "When expert advice fails to reduce the productivity gap: Experimental evidence from chess players," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 236(C).
    3. Peng, Diefeng & Rao, Yulei & Sun, Xianming & Xiao, Erte, 2025. "Optional disclosure and observational learning," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 229(C).
    4. Gergely Hajdu & Balázs Krusper, 2023. "Choice-induced Sticky Learning," Department of Economics Working Papers wuwp349, Vienna University of Economics and Business, Department of Economics.
    5. Arto Arman & Andreas Beerli & Aljosha Henkel & Michel André Maréchal, 2026. "Standing in Prisoners’ Shoes: A Randomized Trial on How Incarceration Shapes Criminal Justice Preferences," CESifo Working Paper Series 12455, CESifo.
    6. Kondylis,Florence & Loeser,John Ashton & Mobarak,Mushfiq & Jones,Maria Ruth & Stein,Daniel Kevin, 2023. "Learning from Self and Learning from Others : Experimental Evidence from Bangladesh," Policy Research Working Paper Series 10545, The World Bank.
    7. Kashner, Daniel & Stalinski, Mateusz, 2024. "Preempting polarization: An experiment on opinion formation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 234(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leavens, Laura & Bauchet, Jonathan & Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob, 2021. "After the project is over: Measuring longer-term impacts of a food safety intervention in Senegal," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    2. Fafchamps, Marcel & Islam, Asad & Malek, Mohammad Abdul & Pakrashi, Debayan, 2020. "Can referral improve targeting? Evidence from an agricultural training experiment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    3. Edika Quispe-Torreblanca & David Hume & John Gathergood & George Loewenstein & Neil Stewart, 2023. "At the Top of the Mind: Peak Prices and the Disposition Effect," Discussion Papers 2023-09, The Centre for Decision Research and Experimental Economics, School of Economics, University of Nottingham.
    4. Manski, Charles F. & Neri, Claudia, 2013. "First- and second-order subjective expectations in strategic decision-making: Experimental evidence," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 232-254.
    5. Arto Arman & Andreas Beerli & Aljosha Henkel & Michel André Maréchal, 2026. "Standing in Prisoners’ Shoes: A Randomized Trial on How Incarceration Shapes Criminal Justice Preferences," CESifo Working Paper Series 12455, CESifo.
    6. Dalton, Michael & Landry, Peter, 2020. "‘Overattention’ to first-hand experience in hiring decisions: Evidence from professional basketball," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 98-113.
    7. Kate Vaiknoras & Catherine Larochelle, 2023. "Training and seed production spillovers and technology adoption: The case of seed producer groups in Nepal," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 54(6), pages 921-942, November.
    8. Estefan, Alejandro & Ordoñez, Romina & Parilli, Cristina & Winters, Paul, 2025. "Hybrid agricultural extension and the adoption of climate-resilient varieties: Evidence from oil palm in the Amazon," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    9. Abebe, Meseret Birhane & Endale, Kefyalew, 2023. "The Impact of Improved Seed Adoption on Nutrition Outcome: A Panel Endogenous Switching Regression Analysis," EfD Discussion Paper 23-1, Environment for Development, University of Gothenburg.
    10. Islam, Asadul & Ushchev, Philip & Zenou, Yves & Zhang, Xin, 2019. "The Value of Information in Technology Adoption," IZA Discussion Papers 12672, IZA Network @ LISER.
    11. Riley, Emma & Shonchoy, Abu S. & Osei, Robert Darko, 2025. "Incentives and endorsement for technology adoption: Evidence from mobile banking in Ghana," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    12. Gulati, Kajal & Magnan, Nicholas & Lybbert, Travis J. & Spielman, David J., 2026. "Gendered networks and demand for an agricultural technology in India," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    13. Ambler, Kate & Godlonton, Susan & Recalde, María P., 2021. "Follow the leader? A field experiment on social influence," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 1280-1297.
    14. Alain de Janvry & Elisabeth Sadoulet, 2019. "Transforming developing country agriculture: Removing adoption constraints and promoting inclusive value chain development," Working Papers hal-02287668, HAL.
    15. Arslan, Cansın & Wollni, Meike & Oduol, Judith & Hughes, Karl, 2022. "Who communicates the information matters for technology adoption," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    16. Cansın Arslan & Daniel Gregg & Meike Wollni, 2024. "Paying more to make less: value degrading in the coffee value chain in eastern Uganda," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 106(1), pages 96-117, January.
    17. Malmendier, Ulrike & Pouzo, Demian & Vanasco, Victoria, 2020. "Investor experiences and international capital flows," Journal of International Economics, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    18. Alem, Yonas, 2021. "Mitigating climate change through sustainable technology adoption: Insights from cookstove interventions," Ruhr Economic Papers 907, RWI - Leibniz-Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, University of Duisburg-Essen.
    19. Jean‐Paul Chavas & Céline Nauges, 2020. "Uncertainty, Learning, and Technology Adoption in Agriculture," Applied Economic Perspectives and Policy, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 42(1), pages 42-53, March.
    20. Lasdun, Violet & Harou, Aurelie P. & Magomba, Christopher & Guerena, David, 2022. "Peer Learning in a Digital Farmer-to-Farmer Network: Effects on Technology Adoption and Self-Efficacy Beliefs," 2022 Annual Meeting, July 31-August 2, Anaheim, California 322561, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics
    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:nbr:nberwo:30378. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.html .

    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.