Unstuck in time: episodic future thinking reduces delay discounting and cigarette smoking

Delay discounting, or the devaluation of delayed outcomes, appears to play an etiological role in tobacco and other substance-use disorders.

No human studies to our knowledge have been designed to examine whether experimental reductions in delay discounting produce concomitant reduction in drug use.

Using methods from prior studies on delay discounting and obesity, we examined the effects of episodic future thinking (EFT; a form of mental prospection) on delay discounting and cigarette self-administration in smokers.

Consistent with prior data, EFT significantly reduced both delay discounting (Cohen's d effect size = 0.65) and the number of cigarette puffs earned in a cigarette self-administration task (d = 0.58).

The effects of EFT on delay discounting generalize to smokers; EFT also reduces laboratory-based cigarette self-administration. Potential mechanisms of EFT's effects are discussed as well as implications of EFT for clinical treatment of substance-use disorders.