Abstract
When choosing between immediate and temporally delayed goods, people sometimes decide disadvantageously. Here, we aim to provide process-level insight into differences between individually determined advantageous and disadvantageous choices. Participants played a computer game, deciding between two different rewards of varying size and distance by moving an agent towards the chosen reward. We calculated individual models of advantageous choices and characterized the decision process by analyzing mouse movements. The larger amount of participants’ choices was classified as advantageous and the disadvantageous choices were biased towards choosing sooner/smaller rewards. The deflection of mouse movements indicated more conflict in disadvantageous choices compared with advantageous choices when the utilities of the options differed clearly. Further process oriented analysis revealed that disadvantageous choices were biased by a tendency for choice-repetition and an undervaluation of the value information in favour of the delay information, making rather simple choices harder than could be expected from the properties of the decision situation.
Highlights
Human choices sometimes deviate from rationality standards as defined, for instance, by the economical rule of utility maximization [1]
This study suggests a participant-specific and process-oriented approach to human decision behavior in intertemporal choice tasks
Comparing the deflections of movements leading to choices, we found moderate conflict for advantageous and disadvantageous choices alike, when utilities differed only slightly, as could be expected due to increased task difficulty [21]
Summary
Human choices sometimes deviate from rationality standards as defined, for instance, by the economical rule of utility maximization [1]. Empirical studies found that, compared to normative theories [2], individuals often discount rewards too steeply, especially for the near future [3,4,5,6] These findings raised the question whether the economic norm, originally stated as a first assumption [2], failed or whether individuals choose disadvantageously. Due to the lack of a valid economic reference model in common tasks, little is known about why humans fail to choose advantageously. Do they as often assumed [12], chose against better knowledge or are they just committing errors?
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