Biases in Information Selection and Processing: Survey Evidence from the Pandemic
通过两个调查实验，研究人们在疫情中选择乐观还是悲观信息，以及信息如何影响信念，发现确认偏差和来源依赖导致信息获取扭曲。
Abstract We conduct two survey experiments to study which information people choose to consume and how it affects their beliefs. In the first experiment, respondents choose between optimistic and pessimistic article headlines related to the COVID-19 pandemic and are then randomly shown one of the articles. Respondents with more pessimistic prior beliefs tend to prefer pessimistic headlines, providing evidence of confirmation bias. Additionally, respondents assigned to the less preferred article discount its information. The second experiment studies the role of partisan views, uncovering strong source dependence: news source revelation further distorts information acquisition, eliminating the role of priors in article choice.