Better is worse,worse is better: Reexamination of violations of dominance in intertemporal choice

Recently,scholten and read (2014) found new violations of dominance in intertemporal choice. although adding a small receipt before a delayed payment or adding a small delayed receipt after an immediate receipt makes the prospect objectively better,it decreases the preference for that prospect (better is worse). conversely,although adding a small payment before a delayed receipt or adding a small delayed payment after an immediate payment makes the prospect objectively worse,it increases the preference for that prospect (worse is better). scholten and read explained these violations in terms of a preference for improvement. however,to produce violations such as these,we find that the temporal sequences need not be constructed as scholten and read suggested. in this study,adding a small receipt before a dated receipt (thus constructed as improving) or adding a receipt after a dated payment (thus constructed as improving) decreases preferences for those prospects. conversely,adding a small payment after a dated receipt (thus constructed as deteriorating) or adding a small payment before a delayed payment (thus constructed as deteriorating) increases preferences for those prospects. © 2017.