Imagining emotional events benefits future-oriented decisions.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Decision Science

Background:

• Episodic future thinking (EFT) influences delay discounting, the devaluation of future rewards.
• Prior research presents conflicting findings on whether EFT's effect is valence-specific (positive vs. negative).
• Recent studies suggest EFT reduces delay discounting irrespective of emotional valence.

Purpose of the Study:

• To replicate and extend findings that EFT reduces delay discounting independent of valence.
• To investigate the differential impact of positive, neutral, and negative EFT on delay discounting.
• To explore the role of personal relevance and vividness in EFT's effect on decision-making.

Main Methods:

• Online study with 604 participants, with 572 included after exclusions.
• Participants completed a delay discounting task at baseline.
• Participants engaged in positive, neutral, or negative EFT before a second delay discounting task.

Main Results:

• Episodic future thinking significantly reduced delay discounting across all valence conditions (positive, neutral, negative).
• The reduction in delay discounting was most pronounced in the positive EFT condition.
• The valence-specific effect remained significant even after controlling for personal relevance and vividness.

Conclusions:

• Episodic future thinking promotes future-oriented choices by enhancing future contextualization.
• Positive emotional content in EFT further strengthens its impact on reducing delay discounting.
• EFT serves as a valuable tool for encouraging more farsighted decision-making.