Strategic Learning with Asymmetric Rationality

Abstract: This paper analyzes the dynamic interaction between a fully rational, privately informed sender and a boundedly rational, uninformed receiver with memory constraints. The sender controls the flow of information, while the receiver designs a decision-making protocol, modeled as a finite-state machine, that governs how information is interpreted, how internal memory states evolve, and when and what decisions are made. The receiver must use the limited set of states optimally, both to learn and to create incentives for the sender to provide information. We show that behavior patterns such as information avoidance, opinion polarization, and indecision arise as equilibrium responses to asymmetric rationality. The model offers an expressive framework for strategic learning and decision-making in environments with cognitive and informational asymmetries, with applications to regulatory review and media distrust.