Preference for quicker offers: The critical roles of temporal reference points and evaluation mode

Abstract

People may use the amount of time it takes someone else to reach a particular decision as input that informs their thoughts and feelings about that decision. Building on prior work suggesting that people are more inclined to accept offers that are extended more rapidly, the current research shows that this preference for quicker offers depends critically on whether offers are considered simultaneously along with other offers or individually (i.e., joint vs. separate evaluation mode), as well as on the presence and nature of explicit temporal reference points in joint evaluation mode. We theorize that the preference for quicker offers is limited to settings where (1) multiple offers are considered simultaneously and (2) the amount of time it took for these offers to be made exceeds a salient temporal reference point. This implies that the effect should not be observed when multiple offers are considered that were not all generated more slowly than an explicit temporal reference point, or when offers are considered one at a time. Evidence from seven studies provides support for this theorizing. The findings advance our understanding of the nuanced ways in which the amount of time taken to extend offers affects how people interpret, draw inferences from, and respond to these offers.