Ideology and the Direction of Causation in the Acquisition and Maintenance of Shared Belief Systems
Preferences and beliefs are more widely and systematically shared than might be predicted by a subjective, idiosyncratic view arising out of neoclassical economics. Two works were published twenty five years ago on just this question, contesting conceptions of belief acquisition: Denzau and North (1994) and Hinich and Munger (1994). Denzau and North argued that beliefs are simplified representations of reality that provide conventional means of interpreting the world around us; Hinich and Munger agreed. But Denzau and North argued that beliefs were essentially self-perpetuating, and not subject to optimizing revision based on feedback, while Hinich and Munger followed the orthodox Downsian notion of a heuristic that economizes (in equilibrium) on the cost of becoming informed about politics. The big difference is that the Hume-Denzau-North conception follows the “Folk Theorem,” making no claim about the optimality of the belief systems that a society comes to share.
Duke Scholars
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- Economics
- 3801 Applied economics
- 3502 Banking, finance and investment
- 1402 Applied Economics
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Published In
DOI
EISSN
ISSN
Publication Date
Volume
Issue
Start / End Page
Related Subject Headings
- Economics
- 3801 Applied economics
- 3502 Banking, finance and investment
- 1402 Applied Economics