Limited cognitive ability and selective information processing

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    7 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    This paper studies the information processing behavior of a decision maker (DM) who can only process a subset of all information he receives: before taking an action, the DM receives sequentially a number of signals and decides whether to process or ignore each of them as it is received. The model generates an information processing behavior consistent with that documented in the psychological literature: first, the DM chooses to process signals that are strong; second, his processing strategy exhibits confirmation bias if he has a strong prior belief; third, he tends to process signals that suggest favorable outcomes (wishful thinking). As an application I analyze how the Internet and the induced change in information availability affects the processing behavior of the DM. I show that providing more/better information to the DM could strengthen his confirming bias.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)345-369
    Number of pages25
    JournalGames and Economic Behavior
    Volume120
    Early online date4 Feb 2020
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - Mar 2020

    User-Defined Keywords

    • Limited ability
    • Information overload
    • Information avoidance
    • Confirmation bias
    • Wishful thinking
    • Polarization

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