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Measuring Delay Discounting in Humans Using an Adjusting Amount Task
Published on: January 9, 2016
Escaping the impulse to immediate gratification: the prospect concept promotes a future-oriented mindset, prompting
Ying-Yao Cheng1, Paichi Pat Shein, Wen-Bin Chiou
1Institute of Education, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Abstract:
People's willingness to postpone receiving an immediate reward in order to gain additional benefits in the future, that is, a tendency to shallow delay discounting, is closely related to one's health, wealth, and happiness. We conducted two experiments investigating how the prospect concept can induce a future-oriented mindset and induce people to behave accordingly. We found that engaging in prospective imagery led the participants to focus on delayed utility over immediate utility in financial decisions (Experiment 1). Participants who received the prospect prime via a scrambled-sentence task decreased their desire to pursue hedonic activities for instant gratification (Experiment 2). Moreover, a state of future orientation mediated the effect of the prospect prime on measures of delayed gratification (Experiments 1 and 2). Thus, reminders of prospect may activate a mindset for future orientation by which delayed gratification is strengthened.
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