Inducing feelings of ignorance makes people more receptive to expert (economist) opinion
While they usually should, people do not revise their beliefs more to expert (economist) opinion than to lay opinion. The present research sought to better understand the factors that make it more likely for an individual to change their mind when faced with the opinions of expert economists versus...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
2020-11-01
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| Series: | Judgment and Decision Making |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.sjdm.org/20/200615a/jdm200615a.pdf |
| Summary: | While they usually
should, people do not revise their beliefs more to expert (economist) opinion
than to lay opinion. The present research sought to better understand the
factors that make it more likely for an individual to change their mind when
faced with the opinions of expert economists versus the general public. Across
five studies we examined the role that overestimation of knowledge plays in
this behavior. We replicated the finding that people fail to privilege the
opinion of experts over the public across two different (Study 1) and five
different (Study 5) economic issues. We further find that undermining an
illusion of both topic-relevant (Studies 2--4) and -irrelevant knowledge
(Studies 3 and 4) leads to greater normative belief revision in response to
expert rather than lay opinion. We suggest one reason that people fail to
revise their beliefs more in response to experts is because people think they
know more than they really do. |
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| ISSN: | 1930-2975 |