Interestingly enough, this is a topic that has been studied in behavioral economics, where the described strategy is known as "satisficing" (as opposed to "maxi

Interestingly enough, this is a topic that has been studied in behavioral economics, where the described strategy is known as "satisficing" (as opposed to "maximizing"). The model assumes that when humans try to make choices, rather than trying to pick the "best" choice (the choice with the maximum benefit), they attempt to find the first choice which meets or exceeds an internally set "threshold" benefit and pick it. The relative optimality of the two strategies has not been conclusively decided on, but "satisficing" generally appears to be more in line with how humans naturally behave based on experiments. The details have been given in a paper by Caplin, Dean, Martin [1] [1] http://www.econ.brown.edu/fac/mark_dean/Pub_Paper_6.pdf http://www.econ.brown.edu/fac/mark_dean/Pub_Paper_6.pdf