Gender differences in multi-attribute dietary decision making under time pressure: A hierarchical drift-diffusion...

Time pressure influences decision-making across domains, but its effects on multi-attribute dietary decision and potential gender differences remain unclear. Using an incentive-compatible paradigm, we investigated how time pressure might modulate the cognitive mechanisms of food choices in men and women. Participants made binary choices between health-taste tradeoffs under time-pressure and no-time-pressure conditions. Behavioral results revealed that time pressure altered choice patterns across genders, with no gender differences in response times or healthier choices under both time conditions. Hierarchical drift-diffusion modeling (HDDM) revealed three key mechanisms. First, male participants shifted from deliberative health-taste integration to hedonic-dominant processing under time pressure, whereas female participants maintained stable taste-focused strategies. Second, both genders showed reduced decision thresholds under time constraints, requiring less evidence for choices. Third, time pressure eliminated baseline gender differences in perceptual-motor speed. Collectively, these findings indicated that temporal constraints may restructure dietary decision-making through both gender-specific strategies and shared adaptive responses, offering insights for designing personalized choice environments to promote healthier eating.