Why the distorted beliefs that alter real
Concept introduction:
People’s beliefs about specific economic problems are often heterogeneous and not stable over time. Moreover, policymakers are themselves overwhelmingly drawn from the ranks of the lay public. Most politicians are not research scientists, and although they may have access to more information than the average citizen, their opinions on economic issues are shaped by many of the same forces that determine the beliefs of the average member of the public.
There are some factors that determine the public’s beliefs:
Individual inference, social learning, and the media .
- Individual inference determines how people’s beliefs are updated by signals from the media, peers, or nature itself. Both rational and behavioral models of inference identify the potential for biased individual beliefs to arise.
- Social learning concerns how the interactions between groups of people affect beliefs. Such social interactions can be expected to lead to unbiased collective beliefs.
- Finally, the media shapes the public’s informational landscape.
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