Remember Me? A Field Study on Memory Biases in Academia

Michèle Belot and Marina Schroeder ()
Authors registered in the RePEc Author Service: Marina Schröder

Edinburgh School of Economics Discussion Paper Series from Edinburgh School of Economics, University of Edinburgh

Abstract: Are some people more memorable than others? We conduct an experiment in a real work setting - academia. A month after two international conferences, participants are asked to recall presenters' names, institutions and the papers they presented. We find that people recall distinctive 'minority' attributes of presenters (such as being female or non-white) and better recall identities of ethnic minorities. In contrast, academic achievements have little explanatory power on the probability of being remembered. These findings provide evidence for a potential value of standing out and have implications for our understanding of the formation of professional networks.

Keywords: memory; discrimination; field experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D83 J15 J16 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 39
Date: 2015-12
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http://www.econ.ed.ac.uk/papers/id263_esedps.pdf

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Working Paper: Remember Me? A Field Study on Memory Biases in Academia (2015)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:edn:esedps:263

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