Template-Type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Title: Fishing for Good News: Motivated Information Acquisition
Author-Name: Si Chen
Author-Email: si.chen@univie.ac.at
Author-Name: Carl Heese
Author-Email: carl.heese@univie.ac.at

Classification-JEL: D90, D91
Keywords:  Motivated Beliefs, Social Preferences, Information Preferences, Bayesian Persuasion, Belief Utility

Abstract: The literature on motivated reasoning argues that people skew their
beliefs to feel moral when acting selfishly. We study information acquisition
of decision-makers with a motive to form positive moral self-views
and a motive to act selfishly. Theoretically and experimentally, we find
that a motive to act selfishly makes individuals 'fish for good news':
they are more likely to continue (stop) acquiring information, having
received mostly information suggesting that acting selfishly is harmful
(harmless) to others. We find that fishing for good news may improve
social welfare. Finally, more intelligent individuals have a higher tendency
to fish for good news.

Note: 
Length: 94
Creation-Date: 2021-08
Revision-Date: 
File-URL: https://www.crctr224.de/research/discussion-papers/archive/dp223
File-Format: application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:bon:boncrc:CRCTR224_2021_223v3