Not Learning from Others. With John Conlon, Gautam Rao, Matthew Ridley, Frank Schilbach.
Conditionally Accepted, The Journal of Political Economy
We study social learning using experiments where two people independently learn relevant information and can share it to make accurate private decisions. Across three experiments, people are substantially less sensitive to information others discover than to equally-relevant information they discovered themselves. This holds when they must learn information from others through discussion; when the experimenter perfectly communicates the information; and even when participants observe others' information with their own eyes. Our results therefore stem not from a failure to elicit information from others but a systematic tendency to underweight it relative to one's own information. Our findings illustrate a powerful barrier to social learning that might underlie many documented cases of failure to learn from others.
Learning in the Household. With John Conlon, Gautam Rao, Matthew Ridley, Frank Schilbach.
Do spouses pool useful information and learn from each other when they have incentives to do so? In an experiment with married couples in India, we vary whether individuals discover information themselves or must instead learn via a discussion what their spouse discovered. Women treat their own and their husband's information the same. In contrast, men respond half as much to information discovered by their wife, even when it is perfectly communicated. When paired with strangers, both men and women heavily discount their partner's information relative to their own. We thus provide evidence of a gender difference in social learning (only) in the household.
Sludge and Sexual Violence Reporting. With Michael J. Challis and George Ferridge.
How Forms Shape Reports: An Experiment in Sexual Violence Reporting in College Campuses. With Michael J. Challis.
Dating: A Markov Process? With Michael J. Challis.
Evidence and Policymaking: A Behavioral Perspective. With Pieter Serneels and Mattie Toma.
Sludge and Policymakers. With Michael J. Challis and Özlem Toplar.