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Motivated Cognitive Limitations

Behavioral biases are often blamed on agents’ inherent cognitive limitations. We show that biases can also arise, or be exacerbated, because agents are motivated to display cognitive limitations. In a series of experiments involving nearly 3200 participants, agents motivated to avoid being generous make simple computational errors and respond to the salience of information known to them, and agents motivated to believe they are smart update on entirely uninformative signals of ability. When we remove self-serving motives, agents appear completely (or much more) rational. Biases that are due to motivated cognitive limitations survive standard debiasing interventions including simplifying the decision environment, giving agents experience, and making sure agents are attentive. ∗Exley: clexley@hbs.edu, Harvard Business School; Kessler: judd.kessler@wharton.upenn.edu, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.