Health comes first : smart heuristics to stay healthy

In the classical "jacket-calculator" dilemma it is postulated decision is regulated by a mental topical accounting process which orients people to consider a discount price when purchasing items. We proposed an adapted version of the classical "jacket-calculator" task re-framing the choice in a medical context. Our results supported the view that simple minimal mental accounts influence evaluation and choice in the medical context where time, instead of price, represents a fundamental cue of the decision analysis. The decision process adopted by participants tended to be associated with a lexicographic decision mechanism where "time" appears the most effective cue of a "take-the-best" heuristic to predict people's behaviour accurately.

These findings broaden the body of evidence indicating that bounded rationality in human decisions is intrinsically connected with the decisional context and different contexts may elicit different mental accounting strategies. In addition, the study stressed the need to enhance the dialogue between the more recent paradigm of the ecological rationality with the classical interpretations of bounded rationality because the two paradigms, not rarely opposed to each other, can provide hints to the interpretation of the decision process, with practical considerations for future interventions in health education and public health. [Publisher's text]