Do Beliefs Justify Actions or Do Actions Justify Beliefs? An Experiment on Stated Beliefs, Revealed Beliefs, and Social-Image Manipulation

48 Pages Posted: 3 Nov 2014 Last revised: 2 Dec 2024

See all articles by James Andreoni

James Andreoni

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Alison Sanchez

University of California, San Diego (UCSD)

Date Written: October 2014

Abstract

We study whether actions are justified by beliefs, as is usually assumed, or whether beliefs are justified by actions. In our experiment, subjects participate in a trust game, after which they have an opportunity to state their beliefs about their opponent's actions. Subsequently, subjects participate in a task designed to "reveal" their true beliefs. We find that subjects who make selfish choices and show strategic sophistication falsely state their beliefs in order to project a more favorable social image. By contrast, their "revealed" beliefs were significantly more accurate, which betrayed these subjects as knowing that their selfishness was not justifiable by their opponent's behavior.

Suggested Citation

Andreoni, James and Sanchez, Alison, Do Beliefs Justify Actions or Do Actions Justify Beliefs? An Experiment on Stated Beliefs, Revealed Beliefs, and Social-Image Manipulation (October 2014). NBER Working Paper No. w20649, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2518739

James Andreoni (Contact Author)

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) ( email )

9500 Gilman Drive
La Jolla, CA 92093-0508
United States

HOME PAGE: http://econ.ucsd.edu/~jandreon/

Alison Sanchez

University of California, San Diego (UCSD) ( email )

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