Immediate Death: Not So Bad If You Discount the Future but Still Worse than It Should Be.

Summary: Imagine having to choose between living a shorter life in perfect health, or a longer life with an illness. Researchers use these tough choices to understand how much people value their health. In this study, they asked 970 people in Trinidad and Tobago to make these choices, including the option of immediate death. They found that people don't think about time in a straight line—a healthy year right now feels much more important than a healthy year far in the future. By adjusting their math to account for this "discounted" future, the researchers found a better way to measure health values that perfectly matches the gold-standard tests used by doctors worldwide.