Two experiments with undergraduates as subjects tested explanations of how a prior temporary income change influences choices between buying and deferred buying. In Experiment 1 predictions from the behavioral life-cycle theory (Shefrin & Thaler, 1988), the renewable resources model (Linville &...

Two experiments with undergraduates as subjects were carried out with the aim of replicating and extending previous results showing that the implication of the behavioral life-cycle hypothesis (H. M. Shefrin & R. H. Thaler, 1988) that people classify assets in different mental accounts (current...

The hypothesis is proposed that due to shallow information processing families frequently use an equal-division social decision heuristic in allocating resources. In Study 1 a survey was conducted of a nationwide sample (n=446) and a smaller student sample (n=50) consisting of married or...