Decision-making Strategies and Performance among Seniors
Abstract
Using paper and pencil experiments administered in senior centers, we examine decision-making performance in multi-attribute decision problems. We find a significant decline in performance with age due to reduced reliance on common heuristics among our oldest subjects. Subjects in their early sixties incorporate a wide array of heuristics, septuagenarians employ progressively fewer strategies, and subjects in their 80s make nearly random selections. However, we find that increasing the number of options in a decision problem increases the number of heuristics brought to the task. This challenges the choice overload view that people give up when confronted with too much choice.Download Info
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Paper provided by Department of Economics, Louisiana State University in its series Departmental Working Papers with number 2011-08.Length:
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Handle: RePEc:lsu:lsuwpp:2011-08
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Keywords:Other versions of this item:
- Besedeš, Tibor & Deck, Cary & Sarangi, Sudipta & Shor, Mikhael, 2012. "Decision-making strategies and performance among seniors," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 81(2), pages 524-533.
- C91 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments - - - Laboratory, Individual Behavior
- D03 - Microeconomics - - General - - - Behavioral Economics; Underlying Principles
- I18 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Health - - - Government Policy; Regulation; Public Health
This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:
- NEP-ALL-2011-03-12 (All new papers)
- NEP-CBE-2011-03-12 (Cognitive & Behavioural Economics)
- NEP-CSE-2011-03-12 (Economics of Strategic Management)
- NEP-EXP-2011-03-12 (Experimental Economics)
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Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.Cited by:
- Tibor Besedes & Cary Deck & Sarah Quintanar & Sudipta Sarangi & Mikhael Shor, 2012.
"Free-Riding and Performance in Collaborative and Non-Collaborative Groups,"
Working papers
2012-21, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics.
- Besedes, Tibor & Deck, Cary & Quintanar, Sarah & Sarangi, Sudipta & Shor, Mikhael, 2011. "Free-Riding and Performance in Collaborative and Non-Collaborative Groups," MPRA Paper 33948, University Library of Munich, Germany.
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