I rented the documentary first, but I want to watch the comedy now
Subtitle: intrapersonal conflict and myopia in online DVD rentals
By: Katherine L. Milkman, Todd Rogers, Max H. Bazerman
Contributors: Rogers, Todd; Bazerman, Max H.; Harvard Business School. Division of Research
Edition: 2nd rev.
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 07-099; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 07-099
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2007
Place of publication: Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 35
Description: We report on a field study demonstrating systematic differences between the preferences people anticipate they will have over a series of options in the future and their subsequent revealed preferences over those options. Using a novel panel data set, we analyze the film rental and return patterns of a sample of online DVD rental customers over a period of four months. We predict and find that people are more likely to rent DVDs in one order and return them in the reverse order when should DVDs (e.g., documentaries) are rented before want DVDs (e.g., action films). This effect is sizeable in magnitude, with a one standard deviation change in the difference between sequentially rented films' standardized rankings on a scale from the most extreme want to the most extreme should movie increasing the odds of a preference reversal by 10%. Similarly, we also predict and find that should DVDs are held significantly longer than want DVDs. Our study ties together the previously disjoint literatures on intrapersonal conflict and hyperbolic discounting and shows in the field that the impact of intrapersonal conflict can be large in magnitude.
Notes: Originally published as: Film rentals and procrastination: a study of intertemporal reversals in preferences and intrapersonal conflict. c2007.

"Revised December 2007"--Publisher's website.

Includes bibliographical references.