Political correctness

An informed advisor wishes to convey her valuable information to an uninfor med decision maker with identical preferences. Thus she has a current incen tive to truthfully reveal her information. But if the decision maker thinks that the advisor might be biased in favor of one decision and the advisor does not wish to be thought to be biased, the advisor has a reputational in centive to lie. If the advisor is sufficiently concerned about her reputati on, no information is conveyed in equilibrium. In a repeated version of thi s game, the advisor will care (instrumentally) about her reputation simply because she wants her valuable and unbiased advice to have an impact on fut ure decisions.