Artificial intelligence algorithms are increasingly making decisions for consumers, from curating vacation destinations to recommending auto loans. New research indicates that receiving advice from a computerized agent alters human time perception, making people feel that future delays are longer than they actually are. This distorted perception pushes consumers to make more impatient financial decisions. The study was published in the Journal of Consumer Psychology. Psychologists use the term intertemporal choice to describe decisions that involve a trade-off between different times. A common example is choosing between a smaller reward today and a larger reward a month from now. Humans routinely struggle with these choices, often heavily discounting the value of future rewards because the wait feels unpleasant. How people experience the passage of time is highly subjective. Psychologists use an “internal clock” theory to explain this phenomenon. The theory suggests that the human brain possesses a cognitive timer that sets the pace of our subjective experience. When a person is relaxed, the internal clock ticks slowly, making time feel like it is flying by. When …