Motivated False Memory

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chew, Soo Hong; Huang, Wei; Zhao, Xiaojian
• 署名单位: Southwestern University of Finance & Economics - China; National University of Singapore; The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen; Monash University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-3808
• DOI: 10.1086/709971
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 3913-3939
• 关键词: Overconfidence; confidence; DELUSIONS; utility

摘要

People often forget and sometimes fantasize. This paper reports a large-scale experiment on memory errors and their relation to preferential traits including time preference, attitudes toward risk and ambiguity, and psychological characteristics such as anticipatory feelings. We observe systematic incidences of false memory in favor of positive events and positive amnesia in forgetting past negative events. Both positive delusion and positive confabulation significantly relate to present bias, but this is not the case for positive amnesia. In an intraperson, multiple-self model, we demonstrate that positive false memory, rather than selective amnesia, serves to enhance confidence in one's future self in equilibrium, thereby accounting for our experimental findings.