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Related Experiment Videos

Uncertainty as wealth.

George Ainslie1

  • 1116A Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Coatesville and Temple Medical School, 19320, Coatesville, PA, USA

Behavioural Processes
|October 29, 2003
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Modern life may decrease emotional satisfaction due to wealth and consumption, a phenomenon explained by hyperbolic discounting. This impatience drives premature emotional satiation, impacting willpower and long-term well-being.

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Area of Science:

  • Behavioral Economics
  • Psychology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Modern civilization's wealth and consumption patterns may reduce emotional satisfaction below natural levels.
  • Conventional exponential discounting models fail to explain this reduction and human responses to it.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the role of hyperbolic discounting in reducing emotional satisfaction.
  • To propose a theoretical model of emotion as reward-dependent behavior.
  • To investigate the mechanism of willpower and its interaction with emotional satiation.

Main Methods:

  • Review and synthesis of experimental evidence for hyperbolic discounting.
  • Development of a theoretical model of emotion and reward.
  • Analysis of intertemporal bargaining and impulse control mechanisms.

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Main Results:

  • Hyperbolic discounting, unlike exponential discounting, explains reduced satisfaction and responses to it.
  • Emotion is modeled as a reward-dependent behavior susceptible to premature satiation.
  • Willpower may exacerbate satiation by intensifying anticipation, creating an asymmetrical contest.

Conclusions:

  • Hyperbolic discounting is a key factor in diminished emotional satisfaction in modern humans.
  • Premature satiation, driven by impatience, limits positive emotions.
  • An ongoing internal conflict exists between planned satisfaction and impulsive desires, influencing long-term interests.