Abstract:

EET （equality equivalence test） non?parameter method was proposed to examine people’s distributional preferences for time. Firstly， time distributional preferences were classified into nine types by utilizing the EET method， assumptions were introduced to reflect the unique features in the time domain. Then， based on the two rounds of behavioral experiments conducted in both time and money domains， decision makers’ preference types were identified by the indifference curves， and the pattern was analyzed. The results showed that： relative to money， more people are influenced by others’ payoff when exposed to time distribution problems. As people use heuristic thinking due to the infungibility of time， their own payoff resultingly converges to the payoffs of others； people tend to be more benevolent when they have greater payoff relative to their counterparts， and more malevolent when having relatively less payoff； no extreme forms of spite are detected.

Key words: distributional preference, social preference, time domain, altruistic