Second Opinions and the Humility Threshold

A decision maker sequentially approaches two experts who possess private signals regarding an unknown state. Each expert strives to provide an accurate recommendation regarding the state, while preferring to be the only one to do so. Our analysis depicts a mapping from the experts’ expertise levels to the equilibria of this game, showing that:

(i) better-informed experts may generate worse recommendations in equilibrium; and

(ii) ordering the experts so that the lower-level one provides the second opinion typically

improves the outcome.

Moreover, we show that limiting the experts’ liability facilitates

cooperation and increases the probability of reaching a correct decision.

 

Joint with David Lagziel.