Now or Later? Examining Social and Financial Decision Making in Middle-to-Older Aged Adults

Contextually driven decision making is multidimensional, as individuals need to contend with prioritizing both competing and complementary demands. However, data is limited as to whether temporal discounting rates vary as a function of framing (gains vs loss) and domain (monetary vs social) in middle-to-older aged adults. It is also unclear whether socioaffective characteristics like social isolation and loneliness are associated with temporal discounting.

Temporal discounting rates were examined across monetary gain, monetary loss, social gain, and social loss conditions in 140 adults aged 50-90 during the Omicron stage of the pandemic. Self-report measures assessed loneliness and social isolation levels.

Results found evidence of steeper temporal discounting rates for gains as compared to losses in both domains. Social outcomes were also more steeply discounted than monetary outcomes, without evidence of an interaction with the framing condition. Socioeconomic and socioaffective factors were unexpectedly not associated with temporal discounting rates.

Community-dwelling middle-to-older aged adults showed a preference for immediate rewards and devalued social outcomes more than monetary outcomes. These findings have implications for tailoring social and financial incentive programs for middle to later adulthood.