A timeline of cognitive costs in decision-making

Christin Schulze; Ada Aka; Daniel M Bartels; Stefan F Bucher; Jake R Embrey; Todd M Gureckis; Gerald Häubl; Mark K Ho; Ian Krajbich; Alexander K Moore; Gabriele Oettingen; Joan D K Ongchoco; Ryan Oprea; Nicholas Reinholtz; Ben R Newell

doi:10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.004

A timeline of cognitive costs in decision-making

Trends Cogn Sci. 2025 Sep;29(9):827-839. doi: 10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.004. Epub 2025 May 19.

Authors

Christin Schulze¹, Ada Aka², Daniel M Bartels³, Stefan F Bucher⁴, Jake R Embrey⁵, Todd M Gureckis⁶, Gerald Häubl⁷, Mark K Ho⁸, Ian Krajbich⁹, Alexander K Moore¹⁰, Gabriele Oettingen⁶, Joan D K Ongchoco¹¹, Ryan Oprea¹², Nicholas Reinholtz¹³, Ben R Newell¹⁴

Affiliations

¹ School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: c.schulze@unsw.edu.au.
² Stanford Graduate School of Business, Stanford, CA, USA.
³ University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁴ University of Cambridge, Faculty of Economics, Cambridge, UK; Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, Cambridge, MA, USA; Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tübingen, Germany.
⁵ School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia; University of Chicago, Booth School of Business, Chicago, IL, USA.
⁶ New York University, Department of Psychology, New York, NY, USA.
⁷ University of Alberta, School of Business, Edmonton, AB, Canada.
⁸ Stevens Institute of Technology, Department of Computer Science, Hoboken, NJ, USA.
⁹ University of California Los Angeles, Department of Psychology, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁰ University of Illinois Chicago, Department of Marketing, Chicago, IL, USA.
¹¹ University of British Columbia, Department of Psychology, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
¹² University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Economics, Santa Barbara, CA, USA.
¹³ University of Colorado Boulder, Leeds School of Business, Boulder, CO, USA.
¹⁴ School of Psychology, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia; Institute for Climate Risk & Response, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.

PMID: 40393899
DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2025.04.004

Abstract

Recent research from economics, psychology, cognitive science, computer science, and marketing is increasingly interested in the idea that people face cognitive costs when making decisions. Reviewing and synthesizing this research, we develop a framework of cognitive costs that organizes concepts along a temporal dimension and maps out when costs occur in the decision-making process and how they impact decisions. Our unifying framework broadens the scope of research on cognitive costs to a wider timeline of cognitive processing. We identify implications and recommendations emerging from our framework for intervening on behavior to tackle some of the most pressing issues of our day, from improving health and saving decisions to mitigating the consequences of climate change.

Keywords: algorithmic cost; cognitive effort; cognitive resources; opportunity cost; representations.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Cognition* / physiology
Decision Making* / physiology
Humans