Week 5 Likes, Wants and Needs 3

F The premise of an "objective reality" that people observe and react to does not seem to hold. People differ in how they observe reality and their observation is also not stable.

Different people observe and react to one objective reality. True False

T The contact hypothesis states the idea that physical contact is important for empathy and that therefore the separation observed in society comes from people not meeting enough. The roommate table in the slides shows that white students that were assigned a Black roommate were more likely to interact comfortably with people from another racial group later in life.

The results of the roommate study and the experiments in Indian schools discussed in the lecture support the contact hypothesis formulated in sociology. True False

A While exposure to news of a certain slant is not new, social media seems to amplify this phenomenon.

While "classical media" such as newspapers, radio and TV ____ characterized by a high isolation index, social media allows users to choose ____ precisely the political space users want to be part of. are, more are, less are not, more are not, less

A The brief moment of ownership entirely changes how much people value the mug.

In the mugs experiment, participants who won the mug value it ___ than participants who did not win the mug. much more the same much less

A In the experiment, participants who could choose their source were more likely to update their position. Being served automatically based on what an algorithm thinks you want is the opposite approach and might make people lose the critical sense of where the news comes from.

Based on the results of the experiment in Korea, what can be a strategy to increase peoples' critical assessment of news sources? Give people more agency about the sources of the news they are exposed to. Automatically provide people with news that opposes their views. Automatically provide people with news that confirm their views.

B The experiments discussed in this clip show that the stability of preferences that economists have long assumed seems not to hold in practice.

Empirical evidence indicates that preferences are stable not stable

F Vaccination hesitation is predicted by geographic location and by the vote share for Trump. This suggests that echo chambers are at play that further increase segregation.

Hesitation to take the vaccine is randomly distributed across the United States. True False

A The widely observed tendency of people to form groups with people that have similar characteristics and similar experiences affects the constitution of our social networks.

Homophily in social networks means that: People tend to form groups with people that are similar. People generally do not prefer to form groups. People tend to form groups with people that are different.

T The experimenters asked whether the participants were willing to pay an amount lower than the two last digits of their social security number for an object. Irrespective of the answer, participants then announced their precise willingness to pay which was larger when the two social security digits were higher. Peoples' willingness to pay was thus influenced by a random number.

In the social security number experiment, participants' willingness to pay for a range of objects was positively correlated with the last two digits of their social security number. True False

As shown by the graph in the slides, newsroom employment in the U.S. has fallen. The majority of news content in France is cut and paste without any reference to the source.

Newsroom employment in the United States is shrinking . In France, 64% of the content diffused by news sites and media is pure copy and paste. The source is mentioned in 8% of the cases.

"Estate taxes" vs. "death taxes" and "undocumented workers" vs. "illegal aliens" are examples for cues that Democrats and Republicans are using in their language. Cues create separation.

Politicians use cues in their language to address their specific group of voters only. As a result, partisanship in the United States has increased . In 1960, Democrats and Republicans thought that an average member of their own party was much more similarly intelligent compared to someone of the other party. In 2008, 62% of respondents thought that a random person of their party was intelligent, as opposed to 14% for a random person of the other party

T On social media, news is mainly reposted and often not investigative. Repeating something many times by many people can create an image of credibility. Fake news especially benefits from this process. In the United States, while social media is the source of 10% of visits to top news websites, it is the source of 42% of visits to fake news websites.

Reposting the same news many times can make them look credible, whether they are true or fake. True False

A That peoples' preferences are affected by small cues is a first insight into how people's preferences are formed and how they change.

Small cues are ___ enough to change peoples' beliefs and preferences. often never

T In line with the contact hypothesis, playing cricket in teams with a higher share of people from other castes improved participants' relationship with other castes. However, playing against teams with a higher share of people from other castes has a negative effect. Thus, the type of contact matters.

The cricket study shows that the type of contact matters. True False

A Social networks can have a large impact on our preferences and beliefs, which is why it is important to understand how they are formed.

The effect of small cues on our preferences discussed in the previous clip ___ enforced by social media and more generally ___ depend on our social networks. is, does is, does not is not, does is not, does not

F As the previous clips have shown, this approach often taken by economists is not necessarily a good idea. For instance, only based on observing that an individual did not perform a certain action (like saving energy at her home) one cannot say whether the person prefers not to save energy or whether she would actually like to but simply forgets it.

Using observed behavior to infer preferences (assuming that people behave perfectly rational in accordance with their preferences) is always valid. True False

B People sometimes form beliefs that make the actions they take or the realities they face more pleasant to them. For instance, you might have agreed with us last week that reading this week's reading assignment is going to teach you more about society than spending another afternoon with your friends in your favorite café. After seeing your friends yesterday instead of reading the assignment, you believe right now that another afternoon at the café actually teaches you at least as much about society, given all your friends' stories and your observations of the surroundings. This (change of) belief seems to be motivated in order to make yourself feel better about your choice to go to the café. By the way, no worries if you went to the café, you can still read the assignment today ;).

What are motivated beliefs? A set of beliefs that motivates people to work more. The concept of people adapting their beliefs to protect themselves from unpleasant realities. A set of beliefs that is imposed on people to adapt their preferences.

B, C The participants of the experiment were all bankers. Those who were reminded of their profession were less honest.

What does the coin flip experiment show? Bankers cheat more often than average citizens. Participants who were reminded of their profession as bankers cheated more often than comparable participants who were reminded of being citizens. People can easily change their preferences about honesty. People are never honest.

B The isolation index discussed in the lecture measures the extent to which people are exposed to news that are framed in the opposite political angle.

What does the isolation index measure? How isolated one's political views are. The share of news items with a liberal slant a conservative is exposed to, and conversely. How isolated one's preferences are.

A, C, D, E, F The study used data on individuals who placed matrimonial advertisements in a major newspaper, the responses they received, how they ranked them, and the eventual matches. People prefer to marry within caste. Due to both sides of the market sharing this preference and because the groups are fairly homogeneous in terms of the distribution of other attributes, in equilibrium, the cost of wanting to marry within caste is low. This makes caste remain a persistent feature of the Indian marriage market.

What does the study on marriages in India show? There is a very strong preference for within-caste marriage. Castes do not play a role for marriages anymore. In equilibrium, the cost of wanting to marry within-caste is low. Caste remains a persistent feature of the Indian marriage market. People in the same caste have relatively similar characteristics. People do not actually need to give up so much to marry someone from the same caste.

B If people are only confronted with their own views in their social network, the social network acts as an "echo chamber" and the views are amplified.

What is an echo chamber? A social environment that leads to the reflection of one's own views. A social environment that leads to the reinforcement of one's own views. A social environment that leads to the diversification of one's own views.