Psychological analysis of consumer intertemporal decisions

Abstract Many consumer decisions involve trade‐offs of benefits and costs distributed over time. Such decisions are often referred to as intertemporal decisions. The current review examines how the underlying psychological drivers of intertemporal preferences inform consumer decision‐making. To this end, we identify four important consumer decision domains—financial decision‐making, hedonic purchases, time management, and health decision‐making—and use the extensive work in intertemporal choice to inform these decisions and identify routes to understanding and improving consumer decision‐making.