Mental models/Hyperbolic Discounting
Behavioral & Decision Making

Hyperbolic Discounting

The tendency for people to prefer smaller, sooner rewards over larger, later rewards — with the preference reversing as both options move further into the future.

In plain language

People disproportionately prefer immediate rewards over future ones, even when the future reward is objectively larger. "Free for 30 days" works because the cost feels abstract and distant.

In the wild

Implementations of this model aren’t wired to this view yet — they live in the implementations table.

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