The Politics of Information Processing

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>This chapter returns to questions of political incentives that shape how politicians design opportunities to learn from the public, how participants strategically engage with them, and the consequences that these may have. What does a better understanding of different types of information processing and their tradeoffs offer us in answering these questions? This chapter in particular focuses on the consequences of potential bias and manipulation, whether through unrepresentative participation, strategic participation, or by strategic policymakers. Importantly, filtering-based information processing is not so easily manipulated by biased samples of contributions, as the information outputs do not reflect every single value in the same way as does a numeric average. But filtering can be more easily biased at the processing stage, creating opportunities for policymakers with political goals to cherrypick contributions to suit their interests.</jats:p>