Strategic Listening

We consider a cheap talk setting with two senders and a continuum of receivers with different preferences. Receivers listen to just one sender, but can choose which sender to listen to. We determine that: (i) strategic listening facilitates more informative communication, such that even senders with strong preferences may report truthfully; (ii) both senders can attract listeners only if they are oppositional and not too polarized; and (iii) senders with preferences that are closer to those of a representative receiver (i.e., the average receiver preference) are listened to by a greater proportion of receivers. When senders strategically select their preference parameters to maximize the proportion of receivers who listen, both senders choose the average receiver’s preference. However, when senders have to choose preferences before they learn the distribution of receiver preferences, they may choose non-central preferences.