Fears, Family, and Finances: Does Environmental Stress Facilitate Temporal Discounting?
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2019-06-20
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en
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Abstract
Evolutionary-developmental psychologists have proposed that time preference, the degree to
which people prefer rewards to occur now or in the future, is an environmentally-adapted trait
that aids survival and reproduction given local conditions. When the environment is
dangerous or uncertain, it may be optimal to display temporal discounting, to devalue future
rewards and select more immediate ones instead. But it is still unclear which kinds of
environmental stress are most influential in eliciting temporal discounting. In this study, we
examined the associations between intertemporal choices and three dimensions of
environmental stress—morbidity-mortality risk, resource scarcity, and family discord—in a
large sample of adolescents and young adults (N = 1,482). The three dimensions were
differentially related to decisions on a monetary intertemporal choice task: Only resource
scarcity and perceived morbidity-mortality risk were significant. However, exploratory
analyses suggested the effects of different environmental dimensions vary with age.
Understanding these relationships will enable tailoring interventions for reducing temporal
discounting to individuals who have experienced these specific stressors.
Keywords: intertemporal choice, temporal discounting, adaptation, environmental
stress, uncertainty
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen