Assenza, Tiziana (2021) The Ability to 'Distill the Truth'. TSE Working Paper, n. 21-1280, Toulouse, France

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Abstract

Employing a representative US online panel, we document strong imprecision in people’s beliefs about their ability to assess the accuracy of news headlines. With a randomized information experiment, we show that revelation of the true abil- ity causally adjusts beliefs and improves their precision. The effect is stronger for subjects who are overconfident about own ability and this is driven by gender dif- ferences in the reaction to this information. Finally, we also find that the provision of information on ability increases the willingness to pay for an insurance against the risk of being harmed by misinformation, among risk-averse participants.

Item Type: Monograph (Working Paper)
Language: English
Date: December 2021
Place of Publication: Toulouse, France
Uncontrolled Keywords: Misinformation, Fake news, Belief precision,, Belief updating, Information experiment, Surveys
Subjects: B- ECONOMIE ET FINANCE
Divisions: TSE-R (Toulouse)
Institution: Université Toulouse 1 Capitole
Site: UT1
Date Deposited: 11 Jan 2022 10:03
Last Modified: 16 Mar 2022 08:19
OAI Identifier: oai:tse-fr.eu:126335
URI: https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/44153
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