Memory and Biased Reports: Evidence from a Pilot Experiment
Date
2024-02
Authors
Serramo, Martín Alexis
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Pérez-Truglia, Ricardo Nicolás
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía
Abstract
In certain situations, people’s earnings rely on their self-reports of private information to third-parties. Are self-reports more biased in a financially convenient direction when recalling the information is more challenging? I present evidence from the pilot of an experiment designed to investigate this question. In this experiment, I assess the effectiveness of an interference task in increasing the difficulty of remembering information to be reported later and test its impact on misreporting among participants incentivized to report what is convenient for them. I find no evidence of increased misreporting when participants engage in the interference task before making their reports. The interpretation of this result is complicated by the fact that the interference task reduces perceived memory accuracy but does not affect objective memory accuracy.
Description
Fil: Serramo, Martín Alexis. Universidad de San Andrés. Departamento de Economía; Argentina.