When Losers Talk: Information Diffusion, Social Norms, and Conversations of Investors
通过实验观察配对投资者的对话，发现盈利者反而更不愿谈论自己的投资业绩，因为担心让对方感到不适，这揭示了社会规范如何影响投资信息的传播。
ABSTRACT Conversations are vessels through which information travels. To understand how investment information spreads via person‐to‐person conversations, I observe paired investors in a well‐controlled experiment. While self‐enhancement bias suggests that investors are more likely to discuss their performance when they have positive returns, I find the reverse: in conversations, investors with positive returns appear less likely to talk about their investment outcome. Experimental transcripts highlight conversational norms as a key mechanism. For example, though sharing information about one's positive performance may feel good, it may also have a negative effect on the listener, and making one's counterpart feel bad is often considered socially inappropriate. Thus, in the experiment, investors with positive returns are reluctant to discuss their performance if they are uncertain about their conversation partner's return, or if they learn it is negative. These results show that conversational norms shape the diffusion of investment information.