Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 14, 2026

Errors as a Means of Reducing Impulsive Food Choice
Published on: June 5, 2016
Temporal discounting and utility for health and money
1Department of Medical Education (M/C 591), University of Illinois at Chicago 60612-7309, USA. gchapman@uic.edu
Abstract:
In 3 experiments, choices for hypothetical amounts of future health and money showed that, contrary to normative discounted utility theory, the temporal discount rate, or annual percentage increase in value needed to offset a delay, differed for the 2 domains. Domain independence, defined as the low correlation between health and money discount rates relative to the consistency within each domain, was not due to different utility functions for health and money. Consistent with other research, these results suggest that decision domain affects the cognitive processes used. Despite this domain difference, there were some similarities between the 2 domains. Both health and money decisions revealed that discount rates were larger for short delays, small magnitudes, and gains as compared with losses.
Related Concept Videos
The Availability Heuristic
Framing Effects
Models of Health Promotion and Illness Prevention I
The health belief model (HBM) attempts to predict health-related behavior in specific belief patterns. According to the HBM, a person's...
Chronopharmacokinetics: Time-Dependent Pharmacokinetics
Time-dependent pharmacokinetics refers to non-cyclical changes in drug rate processes over a period of time. It can lead to nonlinear pharmacokinetics, where the relationship between drug concentration and time is not proportional. Non-cyclical...
Introduction To Survival Analysis
The primary goal of survival analysis is to estimate survival time—the time until a...
Timing and Consequences on Behavior
Humans, however, can respond to delayed reinforcers. We often make decisions between immediate small rewards and delayed larger rewards. This ability to delay gratification is a significant factor...

