title: Irrational time allocation in decision-making.
abstract: Time is an extremely valuable resource but little is known about the efficiency of time allocation in decision-making. Empirical evidence suggests that in many ecologically relevant situations, decision difficulty and the relative reward from making a correct choice, compared to an incorrect one, are inversely linked, implying that it is optimal to use relatively less time for difficult choice problems. This applies, in particular, to value-based choices, in which the relative reward from choosing the higher valued item shrinks as the values of the other options get closer to the best option and are thus more difficult to discriminate. Here, we experimentally show that people behave sub-optimally in such contexts. They do not respond to incentives that favour the allocation of time to choice problems in which the relative reward for choosing the best option is high; instead they spend too much time on problems in which the reward difference between the options is low. We demonstrate this by showing that it is possible to improve subjects' time allocation with a simple intervention that cuts them off when their decisions take too long. Thus, we provide a novel form of evidence that organisms systematically spend their valuable time in an inefficient way, and simultaneously offer a potential solution to the problem.
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich, Blümlisalpstrasse 10, Zurich 8006, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Bastiaan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Oud
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich, Blümlisalpstrasse 10, Zurich 8006, Switzerland Department of Economics and Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA krajbich.1@osu.edu.
authors.forename: Ian
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Krajbich
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Kevin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Jin Hyun
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cheong
authors.affiliation: Princeton Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Botvinick
authors.affiliation: Department of Economics and Laboratory for Social and Neural Systems Research, University of Zurich, Blümlisalpstrasse 10, Zurich 8006, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Ernst
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fehr
mesh_terms: D002755:Choice Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D012044:Regression Analysis; D012201:Reward; D013663:Teaching; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: decision-making; evidence accumulation; neuroeconomics; optimality; sequential-sampling model; speed-accuracy trade-off