Recently encountered delay lengths produce contrast effects on delay discounting

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Economics
• Decision Science
• Psychology

Background:

• Delay discounting describes the tendency to devalue future rewards compared to immediate ones.
• Previous research shows that recent reward magnitudes influence delay discounting (contrast effect).

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if a similar contrast effect exists for delay durations in delay discounting.
• To determine if relative delay length influences decision-making.

Main Methods:

• Two participant groups were recruited via Mechanical Turk.
• One group made choices involving shorter delays (1 day to 1 month).
• The other group made choices involving longer delays (14 months to 30 years).
• Both groups subsequently evaluated the same intermediate delays (1 week to 21 months).

Main Results:

• Participants exposed to longer initial delays exhibited significantly shallower delay discounting for intermediate delays.
• This indicates a contrast effect, where longer preceding delays make subsequent delays seem shorter.

Conclusions:

• Delay discounting is influenced by the relative, not just absolute, length of delays.
• The findings suggest that the context of previous delay experiences shapes present value judgments.