Task completion without commitment
通过实验研究人们在任务完成时间上的选择偏好，发现多数人倾向于立即完成任务，即使需要更多努力，且现有理论模型难以解释这一现象。
We conduct an experiment where participants make choices between completing a task now or waiting to complete it in the future. We vary the dates when a task can be completed and the effort required at each date. We infer participants' preferences for when to complete a task and their expectations about how their future preferences will differ from their current ones. Our findings indicate that most participants prefer to complete tasks immediately, even if it demands more effort than waiting. Their choices generally align with the principles of time consistency, monotonicity, and time invariance. We show that quasi-hyperbolic discounting, anticipatory utility, fixed costs, decision costs, and cost-of-keeping-track are all unable to provide a reasonable account of both our findings and related experiments. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10683-024-09824-2.