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Related Experiment Video

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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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Search predicts and changes patience in intertemporal choice.

Crystal Reeck1, Daniel Wall2, Eric J Johnson3

  • 1Department of Marketing and Supply Chain Management, Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA 19122; crystal.reeck@temple.edu.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
|October 29, 2017
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Understanding how people make decisions about future rewards is key. This study reveals that comparing options (comparative search) leads to more patient choices than integrating information (integrative search).

Keywords:
choice architecturedecision makingdelay of gratificationprocess tracingtemporal discounting

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Economics
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Decision Science

Background:

  • Intertemporal choice significantly influences critical life decisions regarding health, education, wealth, and environmental issues.
  • The underlying psychological mechanisms of intertemporal decision-making are not fully understood, hindering effective interventions to enhance patience.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the role of information-search strategies in intertemporal choice.
  • To identify distinct search strategies and their impact on patience and decision framing.

Main Methods:

  • Experiment 1: Identified and characterized two primary search strategies (comparative and integrative) based on individual differences.
  • Experiment 2: Manipulated search strategies using an unobtrusive method to establish a causal link between strategy and choice.

Main Results:

  • Comparative searchers discount future options less and are more influenced by framing effects compared to integrative searchers.
  • Promoting comparative search causally increased patience, reduced future reward discounting, and accelerated patient choices, even when participants were unaware of the manipulation.

Conclusions:

  • Heterogeneity in psychological search processes plays a crucial role in intertemporal choice.
  • Interventions focusing on choice architecture can effectively increase patience by influencing search strategies, thereby improving consumer welfare.