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The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

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Age Effects and Heuristics in Decision Making.

Tibor Besedeš¹, Cary Deck, Sudipta Sarangi

¹Georgia Institute of Technology.

The Review of Economics and Statistics

|May 1, 2012

Summary

As the number of choices increases, people are less likely to choose the best option, especially older adults. Older individuals also use less effective decision-making strategies, leading to poorer choices.

Area of Science:

Behavioral Economics
Decision Science
Cognitive Psychology

Background:

Individuals frequently make complex choices regarding financial and health plans.
Understanding decision-making processes is crucial for designing effective choice architectures.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how the number of options affects optimal decision-making.
To examine age-related differences in choice heuristics and decision quality.

Main Methods:

Controlled experiments simulating the selection of health insurance, prescription drugs, and retirement plans.
Analysis of decision outcomes based on the number of available options.
A secondary experiment to validate observed heuristics across different age groups.

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Main Results:

The likelihood of selecting the optimal option decreases as the number of choices increases.
This decline in optimal choice selection is more significant in older subjects.
Older subjects demonstrated a greater reliance on suboptimal decision rules compared to younger subjects.

Conclusions:

Increased choice complexity impairs optimal decision-making, particularly for older adults.
Age influences the heuristics employed, with older individuals using less effective strategies.
Interventions may be needed to support older adults in making complex decisions.