Question

Direction: Read the following passage and Answer the THREE questions that follow.
Piers Steel defines procrastination as willingly deferring something even though you expect the delay to make you worse off. In other words, if you’re simply saying “Eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die,” you’re not really procrastinating. Knowingly delaying because you think that’s the most efficient use of your time doesn’t count, either. The essence of procrastination lies in not doing what you think you should be doing, a mental contortion that surely accounts for the great psychic toll the habit takes on people. This is the perplexing thing about procrastination: although it seems to involve avoiding unpleasant tasks, indulging in it generally doesn’t make people happy. Most agree that this peculiar irrationality stems from our relationship to time—in particular, from a tendency that economists call “hyperbolic discounting.” A two-stage experiment provides a classic illustration: In the first stage, people are offered the choice between a hundred dollars today or a hundred and ten dollars tomorrow; in the second stage, they choose between a hundred dollars a month from now or a hundred and ten dollars a month and a day from now. In substance, the two choices are identical: wait an extra day, get an extra ten bucks. Yet, in the first stage many people choose to take the smaller sum immediately, whereas in the second they prefer to wait one more day and get the extra ten bucks. In other words, hyperbolic discounters are able to make the rational choice when they’re thinking about the future, but, as the present gets closer, short-term considerations overwhelm their long-term goals. The lesson of this experiment is not that people are shortsighted or shallow but that their preferences aren’t consistent over time. We want to watch the Bergman masterpiece, to give ourselves enough time to write the report properly, to set aside money for retirement. But our desires shift as the long run becomes the short run.
According to the passage, what could be the plausible meaning of ‘hyperbolic discounting?’

• A. People are able to make intelligent decisions for long term goals but not short-term ones.
• B. People underestimate the time taken for tasks to be done in the future.
• C. People seek immediate financial gratification to long term gains.
• D. People are able to make reasonable decisions for short term goals only.
• E. People tend to avoid performing unpleasant tasks although that would be costly for them in the long term.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Passage Summary- The passage is about procrastination which can be defined as willingly deferring something even though the delay will make one worse off. The reason for procrastination is short term goals tend to overwhelm long term ones.

‘In other words, hyperbolic discounters are able to make the rational choice when they’re thinking about the future, but, as the present gets closer, short-term considerations overwhelm their long-term goals.’
This makes option A the correct answer.

Option B is not mentioned in the passage.

Option C relates only to financial gratification. Procrastination refers to all types of tasks.

Option D contradicts the extract given above.

Option E gives the meaning of procrastination and not that of ‘hyperbolic discounting.’

Hence, the correct Answer is option A.