Author

Benoit, Jean Pierre ; Dubra, Juan

Editor

Universidad de Montevideo, Facultad de Ciencias Empresariales y Economía, Departamento de Economía

Date

2014

Extensión

13 p.

Abstract

Numerous experiments have demonstrated the possibility of attitude polarization.For instance, Lord, Ross & Leper (1979) found that death penalty advocates becamemore convinced of the deterrent e§ect of the death penalty while opponents becomemore convinced of the lack of a deterrent e§ect, after being presented with the samestudies. However, there is an unclear understanding of just what these experimentsshow and what their implications are. We argue that attitude polarization is consistentwith an unbiased evaluation of evidence. Moreover, attitude polarization is even to beexpected under many circumstances, in particular those under which experiments areconducted. We also undertake a critical re-examination of several well-known papers.

Palabras claves

Attitude polarization Confirmation bias Bayesian decision making

Tipo

Documento de trabajo

Derechos

Abierto

Versión

Publicada

En

Documentos de trabajo del Departamento de Economía

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