A timely account of the role of duration in decision making

• Published in: Acta psychologica Vol. 108; no. 2; pp. 187 - 207
• Main Authors: Ariely, Dan, Zakay, Dan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.09.2001
• Subjects: Choice Behavior; Decision Making; Humans; Time; Time discontinuity; Time stress; 2340; Time; Time discontinuity; Decision making; Time stress
• ISSN: 0001-6918; 1873-6297
• DOI: 10.1016/S0001-6918(01)00034-8

The current work takes a general perspective on the role of time in decision making. There are many different relationships and interactions between time and decision making, and no single summary can do justice to this topic. In this paper we will describe a few of the aspects in which time and decision making are interleaved: (a) temporal perspectives of decisions – the various temporal orientations that decision-makers may adopt while making decisions, and the impact of such temporal orientations on the decision process and its outcomes; (b) time as a medium within which decisions take place – the nature of decision processes that occur along time; (c) time as a resource and as a contextual factor – the implications of shortage in time resources and the impact of time limits on decision making processes and performance; (d) time as a commodity – time as the subject matter of decision making. The paper ends with a few general questions on the role of duration in decision making.