A Note on Preference Uncertainty and Communication in Committees

The recent formal literature on communication in committees indicates that truthtelling in committee deliberations is more likely under nonunanimous voting rules when individuals' private interests, or biases, are not common knowledge. The result, however, does not imply that such bias uncertainty is necessarily welfare improving in some appropriate sense. This Note suggests that bias uncertainty is in fact welfare improving and, further, argues that even when committee members prefer that biases be shared, there need not exist any cheap talk equilibria in which individuals can credibly reveal such information.