A Rational Inattention Theory of Echo Chamber

Abstract

We propose a theory of echo chamber based on rational inattention, i.e., the ability to allocate limited attention capacities across information sources in a rational, flexible, manner. Such a premise has become increasingly relevant in today's digital age, as people are inundated with information on the one hand, but can selectively choose which information sources to visit using personalization technologies on the other hand. Since [Sunstein, 2007] and [Pariser, 2011], it has been long suspected that rational inattention could engender a selective exposure to content and a formation of homogeneous opinion clusters. This paper develops a novel model to formalize this idea.