IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ebl/ecbull/eb-25-00634.html

A one-sentence nudge against present focus

Author

Listed:
  • Ilia Aliaev

    (Corvinus University of Budapest)

  • Hubert Janos Kiss

    (ELTE KRTK & Corvinus University of Budapest)

Abstract

We test whether a single neutral sentence can reduce present-focused intertemporal choices. In a pre-registered classroom experiment ($N=210$) at Corvinus University of Budapest, first-year students made eight incentivized choices between HUF~10{,}000 immediately and larger amounts paid in two weeks. The treatment added a one-line, non-directive prompt---``Think carefully about all the possibilities that money would provide you''---intended to shift attention from emph{when} money arrives to emph{what} it enables. Treated participants switch to the later--larger option at lower premia (about $0.1$--$0.2$ SD), but estimates are imprecise and not statistically significant. We interpret the pattern as consistent with a small effect, suggesting that this minimal prompt may be too weak at the stakes and two-week horizon studied.

Suggested Citation

  • Ilia Aliaev & Hubert Janos Kiss, 2026. "A one-sentence nudge against present focus," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 46(2), pages 675-683.
    • Handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-25-00634
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.accessecon.com/Pubs/EB/2026/Volume46/EB-26-V46-I2-P59.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • C9 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Design of Experiments
    • D9 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ebl:ecbull:eb-25-00634. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: John P. Conley (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.