The stability of time versus money valuations

In this work, we propose that the stability of consumer preferences in decision making differs depending on whether the resource in question is time or money. Two competing hypotheses are tested: whereas prior research has demonstrated greater ambiguity in the value of time (vs. money) thus pointing to less consistency in time valuation, a separate stream of research suggests that money (vs. time) lacks emotional tags and is more difficult to process, pointing to less consistency in money valuation. Our experimental results demonstrate that preferences based on money (vs. time) valuations are less transitive and consistent, supporting the emotion-based account.