糖心TV

"Tests for rational disclosure"

According to the theory of rational disclosure, if there is an information asymmetry between two parties, and the more knowledgeable party can provide that information credibly, unless the information is truly embarrassing, that party should rationally choose to disclose it. Similarly, the party who receives the information should interpret any missing information as indicating something truly embarrassing.

What this means in practice is that if your are filling out your CV and there is one year that you spent doing something slightly shameful, you should nonetheless put it on your CV because otherwise everyone will assume you spent that year in jail (or worse).

I will describe some recent studies, carried out with Sunita Sah, concerning whether people do reveal information as predicted by the theory of rational disclosure, and if they do not whether information consumers interpret that failure as they should. The answer to both questions will turn out to be “No.”