Do people have an irrational dislike for risk? People pay less for uncertain prospects than their worst possible outcomes (Gneezy, List, and Wu 2006), and researchers have proposed that this effect occurs because people strongly dislike risk. We challenge this proposition across seven studies....

One of the most prominent areas of research in psychology concerns understanding people’s preferences. In this paper, we critically examine one of the most used preference elicitation procedures: willingness-to-pay (WTP). Contrary to assumptions that WTP captures personal preferences (i.e.,...

As technology and big data join forces, consumers are increasingly able to receive customized options. However, despite the abundance of available choice options, people may not necessarily view their choice options as customized to their wants and needs. Across five studies, we provide evidence...

Seven studies test the hypothesis that people use subjective time progression in hedonic evaluation. When people believe that time has passed unexpectedly quickly, they rate tasks as more engaging, noises as less irritating, and songs as more enjoyable. We propose that felt time distortion...

Can social preferences sustain a for-profit company? We analyze panel data tracking payments of 57,196 customers for five years from an online retail firm whose profitability relies on consumers' altruism. Most customers are generous and remain so over time. However, their generosity slowly...