What is it about?
Mainstream psychological theories of communication assume that the purpose of communication is to inform the listener about the world. In contrast, a number of alternative theories suggest the purpose of communication is to help the listener act effectively in the world. We introduce a new model embodying both ideas, and use a large-scale online experiment to rigorously prove that people care about both.
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Why is it important?
People learn about the world from each other. Understanding this process by developing formal models of social learning -- models that tell us how people exchange information -- can support development of effective teaching practices and combat social challenges such as the spread of misinformation. Our work is a step in this direction, extending classic psychological models to account for more realistic, real-world settings.
Perspectives
This paper is particularly exciting as it offers a bridge between psychological models of communication (which generally treat people as angels who only tell the truth) and economic models of communication (which treat people as ruthless, strategic deceivers who communicate only for their own gain). The reality is obviously somewhere in between; I'm hopeful that future work along these lines can develop increasingly realistic models that capture the "gray area" of mixed motive settings, where speakers' allegiances are unknown.
Theodore Sumers
Princeton University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Reconciling truthfulness and relevance as epistemic and decision-theoretic utility., Psychological Review, August 2023, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/rev0000437.
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