The effect of children's voice on intertemporal decision making: a behavioural economics experimental study

• Main Authors: Ong, Tulip Yu Lay, Tan, Jerell Yong Jun, Tan, John Zhu En
• Other Authors: He Tai-Sen
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2024
• Subjects: Social Sciences; Intertemporal decision; Children's voices; Behavioural economics
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/175593
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Financial institutions often use children and their voices in their campaigns to encourage people to save. Similarly, the literature on trustworthiness and cuteness all point to the possibility that children’s voices could encourage people to be more patient. However, there has yet to be any study on the effects of children’s voices on people’s intertemporal decisions. In our online experiment, 500 participants were randomly assigned to the Child or Adult voice condition where they heard payoff information being read in the voice in the respective condition that they were assigned to. Using a modified intertemporal multiple price list model, participants made a series of binary choices between receiving 100 tokens today and a variable amount of tokens in the future. While we did not observe an overall treatment effect, this study is, to our knowledge, the first to investigate whether children’s voices could encourage more patience in people. Hence, it contributes to the literature’s understanding of how children’s voices can influence people’s intertemporal decisions.