Individual differences in decision-making: evidence for the scarcity hypothesis from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.

ABSTRACT: We report the results of a pre-registered analysis of data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing that was designed to test the hypothesis that economic scarcity is associated with individual differences in decision-making. We tested this hypothesis by comparing time preferences for different socio-economic groups and in geographical areas ranging from the most deprived to the least deprived in England using the English indices of multiple deprivation. The data supported this hypothesis: people in the most deprived areas were more likely to prefer smaller-sooner rewards than people from the least deprived areas. Similarly, people in technical or routine occupations tended to prefer smaller-sooner rewards than people in professional or intermediate occupations. In addition, we found

SUBMITTER: Tunney RJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9597179 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature