Center for Decision Research, University of Chicago, USA.
J Exp Psychol Gen. 2010 Feb;139(1):49-69. doi: 10.1037/a0018062.
People tend to attach less value to a good if they know a delay will occur before they obtain it. For example, people value receiving $100 tomorrow more than receiving $100 in 10 years. We explored one reason for this tendency (due to Parfit, 1984): In terms of psychological properties, such as beliefs, values, and goals, the decision maker is more closely linked to the person (his or her future self) receiving $100 tomorrow than to the person receiving $100 in 10 years. For this reason, he or she prefers his or her nearer self to have the $100 rather than his or her more remote self. Studies 1 and 2 showed that the greater the rated psychological connection between 2 parts of a participant's life, the less he or she discounted future monetary and nonmonetary benefits (e.g., good days at work) over that interval. In Studies 3-5, participants read about characters who undergo large life-changing (and connectedness-weakening) events at different points in their lives and then made decisions about the timing of benefits on behalf of these characters. All 5 studies revealed a relation between perceived psychological connectedness and intertemporal choice: Participants preferred benefits to occur before large changes in connectedness but preferred costs to occur after these changes.
如果人们知道在获得之前会有延迟，他们往往会对一件好事赋予较低的价值。例如，人们更看重明天收到 100 美元，而不是 10 年后收到 100 美元。我们探讨了这种趋势的一个原因（由于 Parfit，1984）：就心理属性而言，如信仰、价值观和目标，决策者与明天收到 100 美元的人（他或她的未来自我）的联系比与 10 年后收到 100 美元的人更紧密。出于这个原因，他或她更希望他或她的近我拥有这 100 美元，而不是他或她的更遥远的自我。研究 1 和 2 表明，参与者生活中两个部分之间的心理联系程度越大，他或她对该时间段内未来货币和非货币利益（例如工作中的美好日子）的折扣就越少。在研究 3-5 中，参与者阅读了关于在不同时间点经历重大生活变化（和联系减弱）事件的角色的故事，然后代表这些角色做出关于利益时机的决策。所有 5 项研究都揭示了感知心理联系与跨期选择之间的关系：参与者更倾向于在联系发生重大变化之前获得利益，但更倾向于在这些变化之后承担成本。
