Age-Related Differences in Discounting Future Gains and Losses

When asked to choose between immediate versus future gains, individuals tend to fast-track benefits and, congruently, they tend to delay costs. But, despite the ever-increasing importance of the topic, few studies have investigated this behavior among senior citizens. The handful of studies that have been conducted have led to conflicting results and focused on gains as opposed to losses. These conflicting results may in part be due to demographic confounds and the inherent variability that comes with aging. Here, demographic confounds and variability due to aging were minimized by studying three groups: middle-aged, unimpaired-older, and impaired-older adults. Participants were asked to choose between sooner-smaller and later-larger monetary rewards and losses. Results indicated that impaired-older adults discounted the future more than unimpaired-older adults. Interestingly, middle-aged adults discounted future gains at a similar rate to impaired-older adults, but discounted future losses less than impaired-older adults (and similarly to unimpaired-older adults). This may suggest that unimpaired-older adults have developed a compensatory mechanism that leads to more cautious, patient choices. We discuss these results in the context of the neurobiology and neuropsychology of aging and decision making.