Optimal Echo Chambers

This paper studies some benefits of ignoring those who disagree with you. We model a decision maker who draws a signal about the (real-valued) state of the world from a collection of unbiased sources of heterogeneous quality. Exclusively sampling signals close to the prior expectation can be beneficial, as they are more likely high quality. Since echo chambers are a rational response to uncertain information quality, eliminating them can backfire. Signals close to the prior expectation can move beliefs further than more contrary views; limiting the ability to ignore opposing views can make beliefs less accurate and reduce the extent to which signals are heeded.