Article
Quarterly Journal of Economics

Coarse Thinking and Persuasion

By: Sendhil Mullainathan, Joshua Schwartzstein and Andrei Shleifer

Format:Print

Abstract

We present a model of uninformative persuasion in which individuals "think coarsely": they group situations into categories and apply the same model of inference to all situations within a category. Coarse thinking exhibits two features that persuaders take advantage of: (i) transference, whereby individuals transfer the informational content of a given message from situations in a category where it is useful to those where it is not, and (ii) framing, whereby objectively useless information influences individuals' choice of category. The model sheds light on uninformative advertising and product branding, as well as on some otherwise anomalous evidence on mutual fund advertising.

Keywords

Cognition and Thinking; Brands and Branding

Citation

Mullainathan, Sendhil, Joshua Schwartzstein, and Andrei Shleifer. "Coarse Thinking and Persuasion." Quarterly Journal of Economics 123, no. 2 (May 2008): 577–619.