{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.02194787379972565, 'fraction_numerical': 0.0054869684499314125, 'mean_word_length': 4.934959349593496, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
A Theory of False Memory Preference: Evidence from a Field Experiment with Investors

We propose a theory of memory recall bias that is different from Benabou and Tirole (2002). In our framework, remembering a negative event can be painful and lowers current and future memory utility, while it helps the decision-maker to make better decisions in the future. The decision-maker faces a trade-off between suffering from the pain of remembering one’s failure, and the benefit of using the information to make better decisions in the future. We conduct an experiment with real-life investors who are asked to recall their best performing stock and worst performing stock. The experimental results support our theoretical framework.