Present bias

Present bias is the tendency to overweight rewards and costs that are immediate and to discount those in the future far more steeply than a consistent, patient plan would. It is why people prefer a smaller reward now over a larger one later, procrastinate on things that pay off down the line, and struggle to save even when they intend to. The bias comes from hyperbolic discounting: the value we place on a future reward drops very sharply for near-term delays but only gently for distant ones, so our preferences flip as the moment of choice arrives — we plan to be patient, then aren't. Understanding present bias explains many self-control problems and points to the fix: commitment devices and automatic defaults, like auto-enrolled savings, that lock in the patient choice before the tempting moment.