Decision-makers are more impulsive on smartphones than on computers

As the use of smartphones becomes increasingly pervasive, the question arises as to whether the smartphone platform induces different choices than the computer platform. An incentivized-choice lab experiment is carried out to examine the effect of the smartphone environment on intertemporal decision-making and risky choices. In addition, a novel approach is introduced in order to study costly information search. While no significant differences are found between the platforms in the case of risky choices, there was significantly more present bias in the case of the smartphone platform than in the case of the computer platform. Furthermore, smartphone users were significantly less willing to invest time in order to obtain information that may increase their payoff. Overall, the findings suggest that decision makers exhibit more impulsive behavior on the smartphone platform relative to the computer platform.