Health comes first: Smart heuristics to stay healthy

In the classical “jacket-calculator” dilemma it is postulated decision is regu-lated by a mental topical accounting process which orients people to consider adiscount price when purchasing items. We proposed an adapted version of theclassical “jacket-calculator” task re-framing the choice in a medical context. Ourresults supported the view that simple minimal mental accounts influence eva-luation and choice in the medical context where time, instead of price, represen-ts a fundamental cue of the decision analysis. The decision process adopted byparticipants tended to be associated with a lexicographic decision mechanismwhere “time” appears the most effective cue of a “take-the-best” heuristic topredict people’s behaviour accurately. These findings broaden the body of evi-dence indicating that bounded rationality in human decisions is intrinsicallyconnected with the decisional context and different contexts may elicit differentmental accounting strategies. In addition, the study stressed the need to enhancethe dialogue between the more recent paradigm of the ecological rationality withthe classical interpretations of bounded rationality because the two paradigms,not rarely opposed to each other, can provide hints to the interpretation of thedecision process, with practical considerations for future interventions in healtheducation and public health