Likes

Abstract

A sender faces $n$ receivers. She privately favors a subset of these receivers but wants as many receivers as possible to believe they are favored. To communicate, the sender uses public ``likes." We characterize the ``liking strategies" that can be sustained in a robust equilibrium and show that they must involve a fixed and constant number of likes. Additionally, we describe conditions for when monotone liking strategies can and cannot be sustained as an equilibrium, regardless of robustness. We apply the model to workplace promotion promises, grade inflation, political campaigns, and liking on social media.

Keywords: cheap-talk, multiple receivers, communication game, promises.