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Individual differences in exploring versus exploiting and links to delay discounting
Author(s) -
Meyers Ethan A.,
Koehler Derek J.
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of behavioral decision making
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 76
eISSN - 1099-0771
pISSN - 0894-3257
DOI - 10.1002/bdm.2226
Subject(s) - discounting , temporal discounting , delay discounting , preference , exploit , adaptation (eye) , psychology , reliability (semiconductor) , cognitive psychology , time preference , intertemporal choice , social psychology , computer science , econometrics , microeconomics , economics , power (physics) , physics , computer security , finance , quantum mechanics , neuroscience
Sometimes, we must choose between obtaining an immediate reward or foregoing it in favor of searching for a better reward elsewhere. Such decisions have been characterized as involving exploration‐exploitation trade‐offs. Here, we studied the reliability and basis of individual differences in tasks involving choices between exploration and exploitation. In Studies 1, 2, and 4, we found little evidence for a stable individual difference in tendency to explore (vs. exploit). Additionally, we tested delay discounting as a potential predictor of individual differences in exploration. In Studies 3 and 4, we found that delay discounting was inconsistently predictive of exploration behavior. Our results support the claim that people adapt their exploration behavior to the environment in which they find themselves. This adaptation overrides any general preference to explore environments more or less than other people. Our results also suggest that predictors of exploration may be exclusively restricted to the particular environment in which they were observed. Implications for past and future research of exploration‐exploitation decision making are discussed.