IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0081717.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Value of Emotion: How Does Episodic Prospection Modulate Delay Discounting?

Author

Listed:
  • Lei Liu
  • Tingyong Feng
  • Jing Chen
  • Hong Li

Abstract

Background: Humans often show impatience when making intertemporal choice for monetary rewards, preferring small rewards delivered immediately to larger rewards delivered after a delay, which reflects a fundamental psychological principle: delay discounting. However, we propose that episodic prospection humans can vividly envisage exerts a strong and broad influence on individuals' delay discounting. Specifically, episodic prospection may affect individuals' intertemporal choice by the negative or positive emotion of prospection. Methodology/Principal Findings: The present study explored how episodic prospection modulated delay discounting by emotion. Study 1 showed that participants were more inclined to choose the delayed but larger rewards when they imaged positive future events than when they did not image events; Study 2 showed that participants were more inclined to choose the immediate but smaller rewards when they imaged negative future events than when they did not image events; In contrast, study 3 showed that choice preferences of participants when they imaged neutral future events were the same as when they did not image events. Conclusions/Significance: By manipulating the emotion valence of episodic prospection, our findings suggested that positive emotion made individuals tend to choose delayed rewards, while negative emotion made individuals tend to choose immediate rewards. Only imaging events with neutral emotion did not affect individuals' choice preference. Thus, the valence of imaged future events' emotion might play an important role in individuals' intertemporal choice. It is possible that the valence of emotion may affect the changed direction (promote or inhibit) of individuals' delay discounting, while the ability to image future events affects the changed degree of individuals' delay discounting.

Suggested Citation

  • Lei Liu & Tingyong Feng & Jing Chen & Hong Li, 2013. "The Value of Emotion: How Does Episodic Prospection Modulate Delay Discounting?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(11), pages 1-7, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0081717
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081717
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0081717
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0081717&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0081717?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dilip Soman & George Ainslie & Shane Frederick & Xiuping Li & John Lynch & Page Moreau & Andrew Mitchell & Daniel Read & Alan Sawyer & Yaacov Trope & Klaus Wertenbroch & Gal Zauberman, 2005. "The Psychology of Intertemporal Discounting: Why are Distant Events Valued Differently from Proximal Ones?," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 16(3), pages 347-360, December.
    2. Kathryn Kadous, 2001. "Improving Jurors' Evaluations of Auditors in Negligence Cases," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(3), pages 425-444, September.
    3. Bechara, Antoine & Damasio, Antonio R., 2005. "The somatic marker hypothesis: A neural theory of economic decision," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 336-372, August.
    4. Loewenstein, George, 1987. "Anticipation and the Valuation of Delayed Consumption," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 97(387), pages 666-684, September.
    5. Lei Liu & Tingyong Feng & Tao Suo & Kang Lee & Hong Li, 2012. "Adapting to the Destitute Situations: Poverty Cues Lead to Short-Term Choice," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(4), pages 1-6, April.
    6. Shane Frederick & George Loewenstein & Ted O'Donoghue, 2002. "Time Discounting and Time Preference: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 351-401, June.
    7. Yan Sun & Shu Li, 2010. "The effect of risk on intertemporal choice," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(6), pages 805-820, September.
    8. Paul A. Samuelson, 1937. "A Note on Measurement of Utility," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 4(2), pages 155-161.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Perisa Ruhi-Williams & Mary J. King & Jeffrey S. Stein & Warren K. Bickel, 2022. "Episodic Future Thinking about Smoking-Related Illness: A Preliminary Investigation of Effects on Delay Discounting, Cigarette Craving, and Cigarette Demand," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(12), pages 1-14, June.
    2. Lempert, Karolina M. & Parthasarathi, Trishala & Linhares, Samantha & Ruh, Natalia & Kable, Joseph W., 2024. "Positive autobiographical memory recall does not influence temporal discounting: An internal meta-analysis of experimental studies," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    3. Rita Abdel Sater, 2021. "Essays on the application of behavioural insights to environmental policy [Essais sur l’application des connaissances comportementales aux politiques environnementales]," SciencePo Working papers tel-03450909, HAL.
    4. Zhou, Di & Zha, Fangjing & Qiu, Wenyan & Zhang, Xiaoru, 2024. "Does digital literacy reduce the risk of returning to poverty? Evidence from China," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(6).
    5. Smyth, Laura J. & Cruise, Sharon M. & Tang, Jianjun & Young, Ian & McGuinness, Bernadette & Kee, Frank & McKnight, Amy Jayne, 2023. "Differential methylation in CD44 and SEC23A is associated with time preference in older individuals," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 49(C).
    6. Gideon P. Naudé & Sean B. Dolan & Justin C. Strickland & Meredith S. Berry & David J. Cox & Matthew W. Johnson, 2021. "The Influence of Episodic Future Thinking and Graphic Warning Labels on Delay Discounting and Cigarette Demand," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-15, November.
    7. Uddin, Main & Wang, Liang Choon & Smyth, Russell, 2021. "Do government-initiated energy comparison sites encourage consumer search and lower prices? Evidence from an online randomized controlled experiment in Australia," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 167-182.
    8. Rita Abdel Sater, 2021. "Essays on the application of behavioural insights to environmental policy [Essais sur l’application des connaissances comportementales aux politiques environnementales]," SciencePo Working papers Main tel-03450909, HAL.
    9. Kausel, Edgar E. & Reyes, Tomas & Larach, Francisco & Chacon, Alvaro & Enei, Gonzalo, 2024. "Does enhancing the vividness in connection with the future self increase savings behavior? A field experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    10. Richard J. O’Connor & Ellen Carl & Alina Shevorykin & Jeffrey S. Stein & Darian Vantucci & Amylynn Liskiewicz & Lindsey Bensch & Hannah Thorner & Matthew Marion & Andrew Hyland & Christine E. Sheffer, 2021. "Internal Validity of Two Promising Methods of Altering Temporal Orientation among Cigarette Smokers," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(23), pages 1-14, November.
    11. Segovia, Michelle S. & Palma, Marco A. & Nayga, Rodolfo M., 2020. "Can episodic future thinking affect food choices?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 371-389.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Takeo Hori & Koichi Futagami, 2019. "A Non‐unitary Discount Rate Model," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 86(341), pages 139-165, January.
    2. Venkataraghavan Krishnaswamy & R. P. Sundarraj, 2019. "Impatience Characteristics in Cloud-Computing-Services Procurement: Effects of Delay Horizon and Situational Involvement," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 28(5), pages 961-990, October.
    3. Jindrich Matousek & Tomas Havranek & Zuzana Irsova, 2022. "Individual discount rates: a meta-analysis of experimental evidence," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 25(1), pages 318-358, February.
    4. Giles W Story & Ivaylo Vlaev & Ben Seymour & Joel S Winston & Ara Darzi & Raymond J Dolan, 2013. "Dread and the Disvalue of Future Pain," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(11), pages 1-18, November.
    5. Faralla, Valeria & Novarese, Marco & Ardizzone, Antonella, 2017. "Framing Effects in Intertemporal Choice: A Nudge Experiment," MPRA Paper 82086, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Pavlo R. Blavatskyy, 2023. "Intertemporal choice with savoring of yesterday," Theory and Decision, Springer, vol. 94(3), pages 539-554, April.
    7. Preston Greene, 2024. "Social bias, not time bias," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 23(1), pages 100-121, February.
    8. Giles W Story & Ivo Vlaev & Peter Dayan & Ben Seymour & Ara Darzi & Raymond J Dolan, 2015. "Anticipation and Choice Heuristics in the Dynamic Consumption of Pain Relief," PLOS Computational Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-32, March.
    9. Palenik Marcin, 2021. "The effect of uncertainty on negative discounting," International Journal of Management and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, Collegium of World Economy, vol. 57(4), pages 287-298, December.
    10. Valeria Faralla & Francesca Benuzzi & Fausta Lui & Patrizia Baraldi & Paolo Nichelli & Nicola Dimitri, 2010. "Gains and Losses: A Common Neural Network for Economic Behaviour," Labsi Experimental Economics Laboratory University of Siena 033, University of Siena.
    11. Terrence Iverson & Scott Denning & Sammy Zahran, 2015. "When the long run matters," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 129(1), pages 57-72, March.
    12. Abi Adams & Laurens Cherchye & Bram De Rock & Ewout Verriest, 2014. "Consume Now or Later? Time Inconsistency, Collective Choice, and Revealed Preference," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 104(12), pages 4147-4183, December.
    13. Ubfal, Diego, 2016. "How general are time preferences? Eliciting good-specific discount rates," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 150-170.
    14. James Andreoni & Christina Gravert & Michael A. Kuhn & Silvia Saccardo & Yang Yang, 2018. "Arbitrage Or Narrow Bracketing? On Using Money to Measure Intertemporal Preferences," NBER Working Papers 25232, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Simone Galperti & Bruno Strulovici, 2013. "The Logical Consistency of Time Inconsistency: A Theory of Forward-Looking Behavior," Discussion Papers 1571, Northwestern University, Center for Mathematical Studies in Economics and Management Science.
    16. Teck H. Ho & Noah Lim & Colin Camerer, 2005. "Modeling the Psychology of Consumer and Firm Behavior with Behavioral Economics," Levine's Bibliography 784828000000000476, UCLA Department of Economics.
    17. João Ricardo Faria & Peter Mcadam, 2013. "Anticipation of Future Consumption: A Monetary Perspective," Journal of Money, Credit and Banking, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 45(2‐3), pages 423-447, March.
    18. Marco Casari & Davide Dragone, 2015. "Choice reversal without temptation: A dynamic experiment on time preferences," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 50(2), pages 119-140, April.
    19. repec:cup:judgdm:v:11:y:2016:i:5:p:472-495 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Manzini, Paola & Mariotti, Marco, 2007. "Choice Over Time," IZA Discussion Papers 2993, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    21. Han Bleichrodt & Umut Keskin & Kirsten I. M. Rohde & Vitalie Spinu & Peter Wakker, 2015. "Discounted Utility and Present Value—A Close Relation," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 63(6), pages 1420-1430, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0081717. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.