Does sadness bring myopia: an intertemporal choice experiment with college students.

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Economics
• Neuroeconomics
• Decision Science

Background:

• Traditional economic models assume rational utility maximization for intertemporal choices.
• Emotional states significantly influence decision-making, yet research on sadness's impact is limited.
• Prior studies focused on negative emotions like anxiety and anger, neglecting sadness's specific effects.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how sadness influences individuals' preferences for immediate versus future rewards.
• To examine the moderating effect of reward baseline on sadness-induced intertemporal choice behavior.
• To explore the implications of emotional states for economic decision-making models.

Main Methods:

• 170 college students participated in an experiment involving emotion priming via video.
• An intertemporal choice task was administered to assess reward preferences.
• Covariance analysis and logit regression models were used to analyze the data.

Main Results:

• Sadness induction led participants to prefer smaller, immediate rewards, indicating a more myopic decision-making pattern.
• The time discount rate was not significantly affected by the sadness manipulation.
• The impact of sadness on immediate reward preference was amplified at higher reward baselines, exacerbating myopic behavior.

Conclusions:

• Emotional states, particularly sadness, play a crucial role in shaping intertemporal economic choices.
• Economic models should incorporate the influence of emotions to better reflect real-world decision-making.
• Future research should further explore the intricate relationship between diverse emotional states and intertemporal preferences.