In his very interesting book, Richard Curtin (who has directed the consumer sentiment survey of the University of Michigan for several decades) argues that consumers form expectations in a complex way using conscious and nonconscious processes. Passion and reason are combined with public and private information to form the basis for the decisions and expectations of consumers.
A really good book: You can download it from Cambridge University Press or from amazon:
Last week, I recommended the book “narrative economics” by Robert Shiller, where he argues that economic narratives spread in a similar way as diseases (the book was written before the coronavirus pandemic). Here again the link from amazon (or alternatively, you can order it from Princeton University Press):
Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events
