A timely account of the role of duration in decision making

The current work takes a general perspective on the role of time in decisio n making. There are many different relationships and interactions between t ime and decision making, and no single summary can do justice to this topic . In this paper we will describe a few of the aspects in which time and dec ision making are interleaved: (a) temporal perspectives of decisions - the various temporal orientations that decision-makers may adopt while making d ecisions, and the impact of such temporal orientations on the decision proc ess and its outcomes; (b) time as a medium within which decisions take plac e - the nature of decision processes that occur along time; (c) time as a r esource and as a contextual factor - the implications of shortage in time r esources and the impact of time limits on decision making processes and per formance; (d) time as a commodity - time as the subject matter of decision making. The paper ends with a few general questions on the role of duration in decision making. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. All rights reserved.