What you are getting and what you will be getting: Testing whether verb tense affects intertemporal choices

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Linguistics
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests language shapes thought.
• Language structure, particularly verb tense, has been linked to savings behaviors.
• Financial decision-making can be influenced by communication framing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the causal effect of verb tense on financial decisions.
• To determine if manipulating verb tense within a single language shifts intertemporal choices.
• To explore the conditions under which verb tense influences timing inferences.

Main Methods:

• Experimental manipulation of verb tense in financial decision-making scenarios.
• Comparison of choices between options presented with different verb tenses.
• Testing the impact of additional timing cues on the spontaneous use of verb tense.

Main Results:

• Verb tense significantly influences choices in intertemporal tradeoffs by affecting timing inferences.
• Spontaneous use of verb tense in decision-making is eliminated by the presence of any other timing cues.
• Prompted timing inferences related to verb tense persist even with other cues present.

Conclusions:

• Verb tense can causally impact financial decisions, but its spontaneous use is context-dependent.
• The findings support a cue-based account where other cues override the influence of verb tense.
• This is consistent with psycholinguistic models like the "Good Enough" proposal, indicating efficient cue utilization.