Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/155647 
Year of Publication: 
2016
Series/Report no.: 
MAGKS Joint Discussion Paper Series in Economics No. 35-2016
Publisher: 
Philipps-University Marburg, School of Business and Economics, Marburg
Abstract: 
Many real life choices concern consumption in future periods. Previous studies apparently demonstrate that people systematically mispredict future tastes in such situations. This evidence, however, is also consistent with the idea that people understand, but do not approve of their future tastes. To disentangle both approaches, we conducted a framed field experiment with commitment option. In our experiment, commitment was not a device against weak will. It was a judgment which a planner imposed on another planner. The results suggest that people do not always aim to please future tastes. People may sometimes experience a conflict between two far-sighted selves.
Subjects: 
State-dependent preferences
Empathy gap
Multiple selves
Commitment
Intrapersonal conflict
JEL: 
C93
D03
D90
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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