14.5. SUPPLY-DRIVEN BIAS
One potential driver of bias is that firms may prefer consumers to take particular actions.
Such preferences could arise from many sources.
Chapter 16 in this handbook considers
incentives arising from pressure by governments, advertisers, or other third parties. Here,
we consider incentives internal to the firm. These could include direct political or
business-related preferences of media owners, or arise indirectly, from the preferences
of reporters or editors.
The literature has reached three main conclusions about the implications of supply-
driven bias. First, supply-side incentives can drive both filtering and distortion bias in
equilibrium and can lead to manipulation of even rational, sophisticated consumers. If
persuasive ...