(2017-06-19) Would People Agree About Everything If We Paid Them

Rob Henderson: Would People Agree About Everything If We Paid Them?

some believe the source of intense political disagreement is that Democrats and Republicans don’t agree on facts.

But a study from political scientists John Bullock (UT Austin), Alan Gerber, Gregory Huber (both at Yale) and Seth Hill (UC San Diego) tells a different story. It appears most people are liars.

They asked a second group the same questions. But these participants were entered into a raffle for a $200 Amazon gift card. Their odds of winning depended on how many questions they got right.

The second group, aiming to win a gift card, had a different result. The partisan gap dropped by 55%.

Researchers also ran a different version of the experiment. It included a cash payment for number of correct answers, and an “I don’t know” response, which offered a very small payment. Suddenly, gaps between Democrats and Republicans dropped 80%.

the lying serves a purpose: It is a form of partisan cheerleading.

Are people lying to protect the image of their tribes? Not according to the economist Bryan Caplan. For Caplan, partisans are sincere in their political beliefs. Rather than being scheming liars, people are lazy. Our default is to be loyal to our tribe.

This echoes Nassim Taleb’s idea of “skin in the game.”

Political disagreements do not exist because of a lack factual knowledge. They exist because of tribal loyalties.