A mini-review on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected intertemporal choice

The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has extremely harmful effects on individual lifestyles, and at present, people must make financial or survival decisions under the profound changes frequently. Although it has been reported that COVID-19 changed decision-making patterns, the underlying mechanisms remained unclear. This mini-review focuses on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on intertemporal choice, and potential psychological, biological, and social factors that mediate this relationship. A search of the Web of Science electronic database yielded 23 studies. The results showed that under the COVID-19 pandemic, people tended to choose immediate and smaller rewards, and became less patient. In particular, people with negative emotions, in a worse condition of physical health, or who did not comply with their government restriction rules tended to become more "short-sighted" in behavioral terms. Future studies should examine more longitudinal and cross-cultural research to give a broad view about the decision-making change under the COVID-19 pandemic.