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Free keywords:
Lying, feedback, overconfidence, updating, laboratory experiment
JEL:
D03 - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles
JEL:
C91
JEL:
D83 - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
Abstract:
We examine under what conditions people provide accurate feedback to others. We use feedback regarding attractiveness, a trait people care about, and for which objective information is hard to obtain. Our results show that people avoid giving accurate face-to-face feedback to less attractive individuals, even if lying in this context comes at a monetary cost to both the person who gives the feedback and the receiver. A substantial increase of these costs does not increase the accuracy of feedback. However, when feedback is provided anonymously, the aversion to giving negative feedback is reduced.
