Strategic Misrepresentation: The Blind Spot in Behavioral Economics
Behavioral economists criticize conventional economics for being blind to actual human behavior. But behavioral economics has its own blindness — political bias.
Strategic misrepresentation is the tendency to deliberately and systematically distort or misstate information for strategic purposes.
Strategic misrepresentation is a behavioral bias that consists in the tendency to deliberately and systematically distort or misstate information for strategic purposes. It is sometimes also called political bias, strategic bias, power bias, or the Machiavelli factor.
Strategic misrepresentation is rationalization. The ends justify the means.
Psychologically, strategic misrepresentation is rationalization. The ends justify the means. The strategy (e.g., achieve funding) drives the bias (e.g., make an investment look good on paper).
Strategic misrepresentation is deliberate deception, and as such it is lying, per definition.
