Asymmetric Discounting in Intertemporal Choice: A Query-Theory Account (original) (raw)
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Journal of Behavioral Decision Making
Research on delay discounting and inter-temporal choice has yielded significant insights into decision making. Although research has focused on delayed gains, the discounting of losses is potentially important in precisely those areas where the discounting of gains has proved informative (e.g., substance use and abuse). Participants in the current study completed both a questionnaire consisting of choices between immediate and delayed gains and an analogous questionnaire consisting of choices between immediate and delayed losses. For almost all participants, the likelihood of choosing the delayed gain decreased with increases in the wait until it would be received. In contrast, when losses (i.e., payments) were involved, different participants showed quite different patterns of choices. More specifically, although the majority of the participants became increasingly likely to choose to pay later as the delay was increased, some participants appeared to be debt averse, in that they were more likely to choose the immediate payment option when the delay was long than when it was brief. These debt-averse participants also were more likely to choose to wait for a larger delayed gain than other participants and scored lower on Impulsiveness than those who showed the typical pattern of discounting delayed losses. Taken together, these results suggest that in the case of delayed gains, people differ only quantitatively (i.e., in how steeply they discount), whereas in the case of delayed losses, people differ qualitatively as well as quantitatively, contrary to the common assumption that a single impulsivity trait underlies choices between immediate and delayed outcomes.
Behavioural Processes, 2009
Procedural variants in estimating delay discounting (DD) have been shown to yield significant differences in estimated degree of DD as well as variations in individual patterns of choice. For example, a recent study found significantly different degrees of DD between groups assessed using either an ascending or descending order of presentation of the immediately available rewards. The purpose of this study was to test for within-subject effects of order of presentation of the immediate rewards in a DD task. In a single session, college students (N = 29) were asked to complete two DD tasks, one with the immediate rewards presented in ascending order and one in descending order. Consistent with previous results, significantly larger mean area under the discounting curve (AUC) was observed when the descending sequence was used compared to the ascending order of presentation; and the correlation between both measurements was moderate. These results suggest that some DD assessment tasks may be sensitive to contextual variables such as order and range of the reward and delay values.
The Costs of Delay: Waiting Versus Postponing in Intertemporal Choice
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2013
Intertemporal choices are typically regarded as indicative of delay discounting. In this view, the degree of behavioral propensity to wait for a reward is attributed to an underlying process of reward devaluation as a function of delay. However, this widespread interpretation overlooks the role that the costs of delay might have in determining intertemporal choices. In this paper I review evidence of a marked discrepancy in intertemporal behavior across different tasks, and argue that the differential costs of delay can account for this anomaly better than alternative explanations. In particular, I characterize two types of delay, waiting versus postponing, examine how they impact behavioral choices across delay discounting tasks, what methodological challenges they present for new experimental paradigms, and what theoretical implications they have for our understanding of intertemporal choice.
Delay discounting: concepts and measures
Delay discounting, one element which underlies decision-making, can be defined as the depreciation of the value of a reward related to the time that it takes to be released. High rates of delay discounting are found in subjects who are willing to forgo greater rewards available only after some length of time and who show a preference for smaller rewards that are available immediately. Widely used as a measure of impulsiveness, delay discounting can be evaluated using experimental tasks. The present review evaluated tasks of delay discounting, their features, measures of evaluation and anomalies, and some variables that can affect delay discounting results and applications in the study of individual and intra-individual differences.
Cognitive Predictors of Delay Discounting in Monetary Choices
Studia Psychologica
Delay discounting, the tendency to choose a smaller-sooner reward over a larger-later reward, has been conceptualized either as a personal preference or as a rational thinking component. In this study (N = 397), the associations between monetary delay discounting-constructed as a rational thinking task-and cognitive individual difference measures were examined. Participants with higher general cognitive ability, cognitive reflection, scientific reasoning, and objective numeracy had a weaker tendency to discount delayed rewards, the opposite was true for those with higher intuitive thinking disposition and bias susceptibility. Bias susceptibility predicted delay discounting over and above all other cognitive predictors. The results partially support the assumption about a common basis of delay discounting and susceptibility to cognitive biases (as a rational thinking indicator). Because of the relatively low explained variance in delay discounting by cognitive variables, however, ample room is left for other potential predictors in the monetary delay discounting tasks.
Delay discounting of different outcomes: Review and theory
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2020
Steep delay discounting is characterized by a preference for small immediate outcomes relative to larger delayed outcomes and is predictive of drug abuse, risky sexual behaviors, and other maladaptive behaviors. Nancy M. Petry was a pioneer in delay discounting research who demonstrated that people discount delayed monetary gains less steeply than they discount substances with abuse liability. Subsequent research found steep discounting for not only drugs, but other nonmonetary outcomes such as food, sex, and health. In this systematic review, we evaluate the hypotheses proposed to explain differences in discounting as a function of the type of outcome and explore the trait-and state-like nature of delay discounting. We found overwhelming evidence for the state-like quality of delay discounting: Consistent with Petry and others' work, nonmonetary outcomes are discounted more steeply than monetary outcomes. We propose two hypotheses that together may account for this effect: Decreasing Future Preference and Decreasing Future Worth. We also found clear evidence that delay discounting has trait-like qualities: People who steeply discount monetary outcomes steeply discount nonmonetary outcomes as well. The implication is that changing delay discounting for one outcome could change discounting for other outcomes. Keywords delay discounting; temporal discounting; domain; commodity; trait Delay discounting, the decline in the present value of a reward with delay to its receipt, is a ubiquitous phenomenon (Odum, 2011a). Steep delay discounting is related to a wide variety of maladaptive behaviors that, although potentially rewarding in the short-term, are detrimental in the long-term (see Amlung et al., 2017; Bickel et al., 2019). Delay discounting is associated with drug abuse (see Mackillop et al., 2011) gambling (e.g., Alessi & Petry, 2003), obesity (see Barlow et al., 2016), risky sexual behaviors (e.g., Johnson, Johnson et al., 2015), preventative health behaviors, and personal safety (e.g., Daugherty & Brase, 2010). If delay discounting plays a causal role in these maladaptive behaviors, understanding the processes that lead to steep delay discounting is paramount.
Initial examination of priming tasks to decrease delay discounting
Behavioural processes, 2016
Steep discounting of delayed rewards is linked with a variety of unhealthy behaviors that contribute to the major causes of preventable death and disease. Growing evidence suggests that decreases in delay discounting contribute to healthier preferences. This study sought to provide preliminary evidence for the viability of developing a brief priming task to reduce delay discounting in a large, diverse group of individuals. Participants (n=1,122) were randomized to one of three conditions: Future Focus (FF), Present Focus (PF), and Non-Temporal Focus (NTF) intended respectively to decrease, increase, or have no effect on delay discounting. Participants then completed the Monetary Choice Questionnaire, a brief assessment of delay discounting rate. Participants randomized to FF exhibited significantly lower discounting rates than those randomized to PF or NTF conditions. Race, Hispanic background, social self-monitoring, education, and cigarette smoking also accounted for a significant...
Discounting of delayed hypothetical money and food: Effects of amount
Behavioural Processes, 2006
Delay discounting research determines how the value of an outcome is affected by delay to its receipt. Research so far shows that consumable outcomes are discounted more steeply by delay than money. Prior studies, however, have used large amounts of the outcomes (e.g. 100worth)thatwouldnottypicallybeconsumedinonebout,unlikethecorrespondingamountofmoney(e.g.100 worth) that would not typically be consumed in one bout, unlike the corresponding amount of money (e.g. 100worth)thatwouldnottypicallybeconsumedinonebout,unlikethecorrespondingamountofmoney(e.g.100). This experiment examined whether small amounts of food would be discounted more steeply than money, as occurs with larger amounts. One hundred and two adults indicated their preferences in a series of choices for two hypothetical outcome types: immediate versus delayed food and immediate versus delayed money. Participants made choices involving either relatively small maximum amounts of food ($10 worth) and money ($10) or for relatively large maximum amounts of food ($100 worth) and money ($100). In the within-subject comparisons, food was discounted more steeply by delay than money for both groups. In the between-subject comparisons, different amounts of the commodities were affected similarly by delay. Overall, these results suggest that steeper discounting of consumable outcomes than money is a fairly robust phenomenon, occurring with relatively small amounts of outcomes as well as with larger amounts.
Time discounting: Declining impatience and interval effect
Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 2009
Most studies have not distinguished delay from intervals, so that whether the declining impatience really holds has been an open question. We conducted an experiment that explicitly distinguishes them, and confirmed the declining impatience. This implies that people make dynamically inconsistent plans. We also found the interval effect that the per-period time discount rate decreases with prolonged intervals. We show that the interval and the magnitude effects are caused, at least partially, because subjects' choices are influenced by the differential in reward amount, while Weber's law solves neither the delay nor the interval effects.
Within-Subject Comparison of Real and Hypothetical Money Rewards in Delay Discounting
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2002
A within-subject design, using human participants, compared delay discounting functions for real and hypothetical money rewards. Both real and hypothetical rewards were studied across a range that included 10to10 to 10to250. For 5 of the 6 participants, no systematic difference in discount rate was observed in response to real and hypothetical choices, suggesting that hypothetical rewards may often serve as a valid proxy for real rewards in delay discounting research. By measuring discounting at an unprecedented range of real rewards, this study has also systematically replicated the robust finding in human delay discounting research that discount rates decrease with increasing magnitude of reward. A hyperbolic decay model described the data better than an exponential model.