Department of Psychology, West Virginia University.
Centre for Decision Research, University of Leeds.
J Gerontol B Psychol Sci Soc Sci. 2019 Aug 21;74(6):964-974. doi: 10.1093/geronb/gbx160.
People face decisions about how to sequence payments and events, including when to schedule bigger events relative to smaller ones. We examine age differences in these sequence preferences.
We gave a national adult life-span sample (n = 1,296, mean = 53.06 years, standard deviation = 16.33) four scenarios describing a positive or negative hedonic (enjoyable weekends, painful dental procedures) or monetary (receiving versus paying money) event. We considered associations among age, sequence preferences, three self-reported decision-making processes-emphasizing experience, emotion, and reasoning-and two dimensions of future time perspective-focusing on future opportunities and limited time.
Older age was associated with taking the "biggest" event sooner instead of later, especially for receiving money, but also for the other three scenarios. Older age was associated with greater reported use of reason and experience and lesser reported use of emotion. These decision-making processes played a role in understanding age differences in sequence preferences, but future time perspective did not.
We discuss "taking the biggest first" preferences in light of prior mixed findings on age differences in sequence preferences. We highlight the distinct roles of experience- and emotion-based decision-making processes. We propose applications to financial and health-care settings.
人们需要决定如何安排付款和事件的顺序，包括何时将大型事件安排在小型事件之前。我们考察了这些序列偏好中的年龄差异。
我们向一个全国性的成人寿命样本（n=1296，平均年龄=53.06 岁，标准差=16.33）提供了四个描述积极或消极享乐（愉快的周末、痛苦的牙科手术）或货币（收到与支付货币）事件的场景。我们考虑了年龄、序列偏好、三种自我报告的决策过程——强调经验、情感和推理，以及未来时间视角的两个维度——关注未来机会和有限时间之间的关联。
年龄越大，越倾向于尽早而不是推迟接受金钱等“最大”的事件，也适用于其他三个场景。年龄越大，越倾向于更多地使用理性和经验，而较少使用情感。这些决策过程在理解年龄差异对序列偏好的影响方面发挥了作用，但未来时间视角并没有。
我们根据先前关于序列偏好的年龄差异的混合研究结果，讨论了“先做大的”偏好。我们强调了基于经验和情感的决策过程的独特作用。我们提出了将其应用于金融和医疗保健领域的建议。
