Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jul 5, 2026

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies
Published on: August 25, 2023
Evolutionary economics of mental time travel?
1Department of Psychology and Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA. pboyer@wustl.edu
Abstract:
What is the function of our capacity for 'mental time travel'? Evolutionary considerations suggest that vivid memory and imaginative foresight may be crucial cognitive devices for human decision making. Our emotional engagement with past or future events gives them great motivational force, which may counter a natural tendency towards time discounting and impulsive, opportunistic behavior. In this view, whereas simple episodic memory provides us with a store of relevant, case-based information to guide decisions, mental time travel nudges us towards more restrained choices, which in the long term are advantageous, especially so given human dependence on cooperation and coordination.
Related Concept Videos
Evolutionary Psychology
Reason and Intuition
What is Evolutionary History?
Optimal Foraging
Hindsight Biases
Criticisms of the Evolutionary Perspective
Evolutionary psychology provides one explanation for these findings, suggesting...

