The Path of Least Resistance: Intertemporal Choice and its Relationship to Choices, Preferences, and Beliefs

Abstract

The degree to which an individual prefers small immediate versus larger delayed rewards serves as a powerful predictor of their impulsivity towards a number of different kinds of rewards. Here we test the limits of its predictive ability within a variety of cognitive and social domains. Across several large samples of human subjects we find a preference for the path of least resistance in the choices, preferences, and beliefs of individuals who prefer smaller more immediate rewards (steeper discounters). First, steeper discounters used more automatic/less controlled choice strategies, giving more intuitive but incorrect responses on the Cognitive Reflection Test (replicating previous findings); employing a suboptimal probability matching heuristic for a one-shot gamble (rather than maximizing their probability of reward); and relying less on optimal planning in a two-stage reinforcement learning task. Second, steeper discounters preferred to consume information that was less complex and multi-faceted, as suggested by their self-reported Need for Cognitive Closure, their use of short-form social media (i.e., Twitter), and their preferred news sources (in particular, whether or not they preferred National Public Radio over other news sources). Third, steeper discounters had interpersonal and religious beliefs that are associated with reduced epistemic complexity: they were more likely to believe that the behavior of others could be explained by fixed rather than dynamic factors, and they held stronger beliefs in God and in the afterlife. Together these findings provide evidence for a link between individual differences in temporal discounting for monetary rewards and preferences for the path of least resistance (e.g., more automatic modes of processing) across a variety of domains. In so doing, they point toward a more unified account of cognitive style and its influence on judgments and decisions related to academic, occupational, and social success.