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Research PaperResearchia:202607.14047

Learning from an Unknown DGP: Experimental Evidence on Belief Updating with AI Recommendations

Matthew Kovach

Abstract

We use a controlled experiment to study how beliefs are updated after receiving qualitative information (AI recommendations) from an unknown data-generating process (DGP). Across 60,252 pairs of prior and posterior beliefs, we document three behavioral patterns: updates close to zero when recommendations confirm extreme priors, larger updates when recommendations contradict extreme priors, and smaller updates for intermediate priors. These three behavioral patterns suggest four testable properti...

Submitted: July 14, 2026Subjects: Economics; Environmental Science

Description / Details

We use a controlled experiment to study how beliefs are updated after receiving qualitative information (AI recommendations) from an unknown data-generating process (DGP). Across 60,252 pairs of prior and posterior beliefs, we document three behavioral patterns: updates close to zero when recommendations confirm extreme priors, larger updates when recommendations contradict extreme priors, and smaller updates for intermediate priors. These three behavioral patterns suggest four testable properties of belief updating, which we assess at the aggregate and individual levels. Finally, we examine how well updates are captured by three models of belief updating.


Source: arXiv:2607.10460v1 - http://arxiv.org/abs/2607.10460v1 PDF: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.10460v1 Original Link: http://arxiv.org/abs/2607.10460v1

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Submission Info
Date:
Jul 14, 2026
Topic:
Environmental Science
Area:
Economics
Comments:
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