Cheap Talk with the Bayesian Truth Serum

Biased responses in survey studies could seriously harm and mislead our economic decision-making. To mitigate survey response bias, we suggest an alternative way of combining two existing strategies, cheap talk and the Bayesian Truth Serum (BTS). In our three proof-of-concept experiments, we found that our alternative approach, named the C-BTS, helps elicit more truthful survey responses even in situations where neither the BTS nor cheap talk alone works well enough, especially in the context of economic valuation of goods. By applying the C-BTS, we have also confirmed that AI-powered services are already significantly enhancing the well-being of our citizens