Data from: Irrational time allocation in decision-making

Time is an extremely valuable resource but little is known about the
efficiency of time allocation in decision making. Empirical evidence
suggests that in many ecologically relevant situations, decision
difficulty and the relative reward from making a correct choice, compared
to an incorrect one, are inversely linked, implying that it is optimal to
use relatively less time for difficult choice problems. This applies, in
particular, to value-based choices, in which the relative reward from
choosing the higher-valued item shrinks as the values of the other options
get closer to the best option and are thus more difficult to discriminate.
Here, we experimentally show that people behave sub-optimally in such
contexts. They do not respond to incentives that favor the allocation of
time to choice problems in which the relative reward for choosing the best
option is high; instead they spend too much time on problems in which the
reward difference between the options is low. We demonstrate this by
showing that it is possible to improve subjects’ time allocation with a
simple intervention that cuts them off when their decisions take too long.
Thus we provide a novel form of evidence that organisms systematically
spend their valuable time in an inefficient way, and simultaneously offer
a potential solution to the problem.