Title: “When do we want it?” “Now!” A query theory and neuroscience account of intertemporal preference construction

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 a range of phenomena in intertemporal choice, including our impatience when we are asked to delay consumption. Behavioral data in combination with neuroscience evidence (fMRI and TMS) provide support for query theory’s assumptions about the processes underlying intertemporal preference construction.

The lecture can be attended without previous notice.