Doubts and Dogmatism in Conict Behavior

This paper studies a game of con‡ict where two individuals …ght in order to choose a policy. Intuitively, con‡icts will be less violent if individuals entertain the possibility that their opponent may be right. Why is it so di¢ cult to observe this attitude? To answer this question, this paper considers a model of indoctrination where altruistic advisors (such as, preachers or parents), after receiving signals from Nature, send messages to the participants in the con‡ict. In some cases, as a result of indoctrination, both individuals never doubt about the possibility of being wrong, although all available information suggests otherwise. In other cases, one of the two individuals is excessively reasonable: he believes that the opponent may be right even when all the evidence indicates beyond any doubt that the policy preferred by the opponent is suboptimal. The common feature in both cases is that information is distorted, although in di¤erent directions. The model has a rich set of predictions concerning the incidence and intensity of con‡ict, and the evolution of indoctrination strategies over time. JEL Classi…cation: D74, D83 Key Words: Dogmatism, Skepticism, Ideology, Con‡ict, Information Transmission, Dogmatic Trap. This research was partly carried out while visiting the Einaudi Institute for Economics and Finance (EIEF) in Rome. Its generous hospitality is gratefully acknowledged. I bene…tted from comments by Vincent Boucher, Mike Golosov, Massimo Morelli, Andy Skrzypacz and audiences at the 2009 SCSE meetings in Sainte-Adèle, Universidad de Alicante, and EIEF. Correspondence: Alessandro Riboni, Département de sciences économiques, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128, succursale Centre-ville, Montréal (Québec) H3C 3J7, Canada. [email protected] “I believe that we can avoid violence only in so far as we practice this attitude of reasonableness in dealing with one other in social life. [This attitude] may be characterized by a remark like this: "I think I am right, but I may be wrong and you may be right." [...] One of the main di¢ culties is that it always takes two to make a discussion reasonable.”Karl Popper (1963, p. 357)