How future self leads to healthier food decision: Evidence from multiattribute time-dependent drift diffusion model

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Decision Science
• Behavioral Economics

Background:

• Individuals often favor immediate rewards over long-term benefits.
• Visualizing one's future self can enhance consideration of future consequences.
• The impact of future self-visualization on healthy food choices and its underlying mechanisms remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if future self-visualization promotes healthier food decisions.
• To examine the computational mechanisms influencing food choices when balancing health and taste.
• To understand how future self-imagery affects the weighting and timing of attribute consideration in decision-making.

Main Methods:

• Two preregistered experiments were conducted.
• Experiment 1: Participants visualized either their future or current self before making food choices between healthy and unhealthy options.
• Experiment 2: Employed a multiattribute, time-dependent drift diffusion model to analyze decision-making processes.

Main Results:

• Future self-visualization significantly increased healthy food choices compared to current self-visualization.
• The drift diffusion model revealed that the health attribute was considered earlier and with greater weight.
• The taste attribute was processed later and with less influence in the decision-making process.

Conclusions:

• Visualizing the future self is an effective strategy for promoting healthier eating habits.
• Future self-imagery alters decision-making by prioritizing health attributes over taste.
• Findings have implications for public health interventions and policy-making aimed at improving dietary choices.