Behavioral Economics
Intertemporal Choice Test
Would you take $54 today or $55 in 117 days? This 27-item assessment maps your intertemporal choice pattern: how you trade off between smaller, sooner rewards and larger, later ones.
How it works
You will see 27 pairs of money options. For each pair, pick the one you would genuinely prefer.
Timeframes range from about 1 week to 6 months. This is a standard research task used in behavioral economics and psychology laboratories.
The Research Behind This Test
Intertemporal choice research spans behavioral economics, psychology, and neuroscience. Here is the science behind how people choose between now and later.
From the Research
"Intertemporal choice involves deciding between smaller, sooner and larger, later rewards."
— Keidel et al. (2021). Individual Differences in Intertemporal Choice. Frontiers in Psychology.
Every day, you face intertemporal choices: decisions where the timing of outcomes matters. Saving money, sticking to a diet, studying for an exam: these all involve weighing a present option against a future one.
Researchers study this as intertemporal choice: how people decide between outcomes that occur at different points in time. Everyone values immediate rewards to some degree. The question is how much timing influences your decisions.
This is not about willpower or morality. It is a measurable behavioral preference that varies across people and situations. Meta-analytic evidence shows that stronger present-bias is associated with certain behavioral patterns, but the relationship is correlational, not diagnostic.
From the Research
"Rates decrease as amounts increase."
— Kirby & Maraković (1996). Delay-discounting probabilistic rewards. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 3(1), 100-104.
One of the most consistent findings in intertemporal choice research: people are more impatient with small rewards than large ones.
You might happily give up $5 today to get $10 in a month. But would you give up $5,000 today to get $10,000 in a month? The ratio is the same, but the decision feels different. This is the magnitude effect.
The MCQ-27 measures this directly by testing your choices across three reward sizes: small ($25-$35 delayed), medium ($50-$85 delayed), and large ($75-$85 delayed).
How the magnitude effect typically works
Typical pattern: people wait more readily for larger amounts. Your personal results may vary.
From the Protocol
"This protocol is freely available; permission not required for use."
— PhenX Toolkit Protocol: Delayed Reward Discounting (Monetary-Choice Questionnaire). Released 2012.
This assessment uses the 27-item Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ-27), reproduced from the PhenX Toolkit protocol. The item text and scoring approach come from:
- Kirby, Petry, & Bickel (1999): the canonical MCQ paper, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General
- Kaplan et al. (2016): Automating Scoring of Delay Discounting for the 21- and 27-Item Monetary Choice Questionnaires, which provides the item-specific k-values and consistency scoring method used here
From the Research
"Intertemporal choices are decisions involving trade-offs among outcomes occurring at different times."
— Berns, Laibson, & Loewenstein (2007). Intertemporal Choice. Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
How scoring works:
- Each item has a specific indifference rate (k) at which a person would be equally drawn to both options
- Your responses are checked against all possible "switch points" using the Kirby consistency method
- The switch point that best matches your actual choice pattern determines your estimated k
- Separate k-values are computed for small, medium, and large reward amounts
- A composite k (geometric mean of the three magnitude scores) serves as the primary summary
- Response consistency is computed as a quality indicator
Rewards are hypothetical. Research shows hypothetical and real intertemporal choices often produce similar results in within-subject comparisons (Johnson & Bickel, 2002).
How Intertemporal Choice Works
Two people, same $100 reward. Different time preferences change how they value the reward as the wait increases.
The hyperbolic model of intertemporal choice: V = A / (1 + kD), where V is perceived value, A is the actual amount, k is the time preference rate, and D is the delay in days. Higher k means stronger present-bias. These curves use example k-values within the MCQ-27's measurement range.
Related Assessments
Intertemporal choice connects to several other psychological constructs. These free tools measure related patterns.
About This Assessment
This intertemporal choice assessment uses the MCQ-27 protocol from the PhenX Toolkit, scored with the Kirby consistency method from Kaplan et al. (2016). It is a self-reflection exercise, not a clinical or diagnostic instrument.
Items are reproduced from the PhenX Toolkit's Delayed Reward Discounting protocol, which states: "This protocol is freely available; permission not required for use." The original MCQ research is attributed to Kirby, Petry, & Bickel (1999). This website is not affiliated with PhenX, Kirby, or any of the cited researchers.
This measures a behavioral preference pattern in intertemporal tradeoffs using hypothetical monetary choices. It does not measure overall self-control, morality, intelligence, or any clinical condition. Results can vary with mood, context, and framing. There are no universal clinical cut-offs for "good" or "bad" time preferences. Intended for ages 13+.
If your results concern you, or if you are struggling with impulsive spending, substance use, or difficulty planning ahead, consider speaking with a licensed psychologist or counselor. A single assessment score is never sufficient for a clinical conclusion.