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.

中文翻译：

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动机错误记忆

人们常常忘记，有时幻想。本文报告了一项关于记忆错误及其与偏好特征（包括时间偏好、对风险和歧义的态度）以及心理特征（如预期感觉）的关系的大规模实验。我们观察到有利于积极事件的错误记忆的系统发生率和忘记过去消极事件的积极健忘症。积极的妄想和积极的虚构都与当前的偏见显着相关，但对于积极的健忘症则不然。在一个内在的多重自我模型中，我们证明了积极的错误记忆，而不是选择性失忆症，有助于增强对处于平衡状态的未来自我的信心，从而解释我们的实验结果。