Patience Versus Decisiveness in Decision-Making * W. Bentley MacLeod Columbia University and IZA New York, NY 10027-7296 Mark Pingle Department of Economics University of Nevada Reno, NV 89557 JEL CODES: D01, D81, D83 Abstract When rationality is bounded, a variety of factors may influence how far a choice is from optimal. We examine the willingness to search among alternatives. We find fixed individual differences in this temperament measure. People may be usefully typed according to how they obtain improved choices. More patient subjects obtain improvement by effectively using decision resources, performing better when the decision is more complex. More decisive subjects obtain improvement by conserving valuable decision resources, performing better when the decision problem is simple. We find that a bonus incentive frame encourages patience, while a penalty frame encourages decisiveness. These results suggest an organization can enhance its performance by matching individual temperaments and incentive frames to decision tasks at hand. * The authors thank John Conlisk, Daniel Parent and Jesse Rothstein for helpful comments and suggestions. The authors also thank the University of Nevada and NSF Grant SBR-9709333 for supporting this research.