Project description
How memories influence economic choices
In the complex world of economic decision-making, it remains unclear how our memories shape our beliefs and preferences, and subsequently, our choices. The ERC-funded MemDec project aims to tackle this enigma, drawing inspiration from the intricacies of human memory. Specifically, this initiative will explore the impact of selective retrieval on economic decisions and how it acts as a source of framing effects, introducing us to a new frontier in understanding the psychology of decision-making. The project will investigate belief formation, studying how our perceptions are moulded by sampling information, influenced by cues and interference. It will also look at the risks and intertemporal decision-making, extending insights across various domains, from financial markets to advertising.
Objective
This project builds on the psychology of memory to study how selective retrieval affects economic decisions by shaping beliefs and preferences. The general approach is one in which a person’s past experiences (both domain relevant and domain irrelevant) determine her “core” beliefs and preferences, but changing cues in the environment ignite selective retrieval of specific pieces of information, causing instability in beliefs and preferences. In this way, selective memory acts as a source of framing effects. One project studies belief formation, which is based on sampling of information shaped by similarity to cues (which include the hypotheses being assessed and irrelevant context) and by interference. A second project applies this approach to preferences, studying choice under risk (whereby people selectively retrieve from memory and simulate potential lottery outcomes) and intertemporal choice (whereby people use memory to simulate future rewards). A third project will apply these ideas to the field. Domains of interest are: i) survey measurement of how past domain relevant as well as domain irrelevant experiences shape the perception of new risks i) socio-economic identity and its effect on political opinions, ii) similarity in financial markets, beliefs and asset prices, iv) advertising, and v) instability of fairness norms.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
You need to log in or register to use this function
Programme(s)
- HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC) Main Programme
Topic(s)
Funding Scheme
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC GrantsHost institution
20136 Milano
Italy