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  5. Numbers Tell, Words Sell

American Economic Review

ISSN 0002-8282 (Print) | ISSN 1944-7981 (Online)

Numbers Tell, Words Sell

  • Victor de Chaisemartin
  • Michael Thaler
  • Mattie Toma
American Economic Review (Forthcoming)

Abstract

When communicating numeric estimates, experts often choose between using numbers or natural language. We run two experiments to analyze whether experts strategically use language to persuade. In Study 1, senders in the general public communicate probabilities of abstract events to receivers; in Study 2, academic researchers communicate findings from research papers to policymakers. Incentives to persuade increase the likelihood of using language rather than numbers by 25–29 percentage points, and receivers are effectively persuaded. Experts slant language more than numbers when they prefer language. Our findings suggest that experts leverage the imprecision of language to excuse communicating slanted messages.

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