Learning about Ethnic Discrimination from Different Information Sources

CERGE-EI Working Paper Series No. 689

50 Pages Posted: 28 Apr 2021

See all articles by Darya Korlyakova

Darya Korlyakova

Charles University in Prague - CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Date Written: March 3, 2021

Abstract

We experimentally study whether public beliefs about ethnic discrimination, an emotionally loaded issue, are shifted more by information from experts or from ordinary people. We also examine whether people are inclined to choose the most influential sources. For this purpose, we combine, in a novel design, the random provision of information from different sources with endogenous information acquisition from the same sources. We find that individuals update their beliefs most in response to information from experts, namely researchers studying ethnic minorities and human resource managers. Exogenous adjustments in beliefs do not induce changes in attitudes to ethnic minorities. Consistent with the strength of belief updating, more individuals choose information from experts over information from ordinary people. This result suggests that, in the aggregate, people behave rationally as they favor a source that is perceived to be relatively accurate. The findings have implications for information dissemination policies.

Keywords: ethnic discrimination, beliefs, information sources, experts

JEL Classification: C90, D83, J71

Suggested Citation

Korlyakova, Darya, Learning about Ethnic Discrimination from Different Information Sources (March 3, 2021). CERGE-EI Working Paper Series No. 689, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3829974 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3829974

Darya Korlyakova (Contact Author)

Charles University in Prague - CERGE-EI, a joint workplace of Charles University and the Economics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences ( email )

Politickych veznu 7
Prague, 111 21
Czech Republic

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