Deferring versus Expediting Consumption: The Effect of Outcome Concreteness on Sensitivity to Time Horizon

Abstract

This work examines consumers' preferences for consumption timing. Specifically, the authors examine how temporal framing (deferring versus expediting) of a decision moderates the sensitivity of consumers' pattern of discounting to changes in time horizon. The results from three experiments show greater decline in consumers' discount rates with time horizon (i.e., greater present bias) when they defer than when they expedite consumption. These results are robust to using monetary and nonmonetary outcomes, as well as to different time horizons (months, days). The authors further demonstrate that the different levels of mental representations (concreteness) triggered by the two decision frames moderate this difference in sensitivity.