Strategic communication of narratives: An experiment

2026-09-09

AI Summary

研究探讨了在模型不确定性下，发送者如何根据私有信息战略性地传达叙述，以及接收者如何考虑发送者的动机调整其解读。实验验证了偏见强度对沟通的影响。

Abstract

We investigate the strategic communication of narratives under model uncertainty. The sender has private information about the true data-generating process of publicly observable data. The receiver is uncertain about how to interpret the data, but aware of the sender's incentives to strategically provide interpretations (``narratives''). We theoretically show that the size of the conflict of interest between the sender and the receiver is a crucial determinant of equilibrium communication. In particular, the stronger the sender's bias, (i) the more senders exaggerate their information and (ii) the more receivers correct the sender's action recommendations. In a laboratory experiment, we find evidence in line with both predictions, suggesting that people in complex and uncertain environments take a narrator's strategic incentives into account. Additional analyses reveal that narrative likelihood does not drive receiver behavior and that narratives are, on average, slightly persuasive only when bias is low.

Problem

• strategic communication
• narratives
• model uncertainty
• conflict of interest

Innovation

• model uncertainty
• strategic communication
• conflict of interest