Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/283306 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2023
Series/Report no.: 
ECONtribute Discussion Paper No. 264
Publisher: 
University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Reinhard Selten Institute (RSI), Bonn and Cologne
Abstract: 
Agents undertaking economic decisions are exposed to an ever-increasing amount of information sources. This paper investigates how the number of available information sources impacts agents' ability to (i) select reliable sources and (ii) use their content effectively to update their beliefs. To answer these questions, I set up an online experiment informed by a simple automata decision-making and belief-updating model. Participants' source selection performances deteriorate as the number of available sources increases. Also, ceteris paribus, their performance in updating their beliefs using the selected sources worsens, showing a trade-off between source selection and belief updating performances. These results may help to guide policy-making decisions, providing evidence on externalities of information production.
Subjects: 
Information Overload
Complexity
Belief Updating
Experiments
JEL: 
D91
C91
D83
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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