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Sam Maglio, Professor, University of Toronto Scarborough
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Choice Protection for Feeling-Focused Decisions
Synopsis
Consumers live life in the present while also anticipating and choosing for the future. This everyday experience assumes that the present and the future are distinct, successive periods in time. But when do consumers think one ends and the next begins? Intuitively, 5 years forward in time departs sufficiently from right now to fall well within the future in a way that 5 seconds forward does not. The ambiguity can be illustrated in considering 5 days forward, which might be considered part of the present or as belonging to the future. This research first documents that the felt duration of the present varies naturally between individuals and also responds to interventions that manipulate it. Appraisals of the present, in turn, are shown to color far-sighted judgment and decision making using a series of incentive-compatible experiments and field studies. Specifically, seeing the present as relatively short and the future as starting sooner causes consumers to act more generously (e.g., to save money rather than spend it) in the interest of their future selves.
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