Duke Institute for Brain Sciences

Elke Weber, Ph.D.

Columbia University

When Do We Want It? Now!

Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business Director, Center for Research On Environmental Decisions Director, Center for the Decision Sciences

Psychologists and behavioral economists agree that many of our preferences are constructed, rather than innate or pre-computed and stored. Little research, however, has explored the implications that established facts about human attention and memory have when people marshal evidence for their decisions. This talk provides an introduction to Query Theory, a psychological process model of preference construction, and uses it to explain phenomena in intertemporal choice, including differences in our impatience when we are asked to delay or accelerate consumption. Behavioral data in combination with fMRI data will provide support for Query Theory’s assumptions about the processes underlying intertemporal preference construction.

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