Liu Lei, Feng Tingyong, Chen Jing, Li Hong
School of Psychology, Southwest University, Chongqing, China ; School of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.
PLoS One. 2013 Nov 28;8(11):e81717. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0081717. eCollection 2013.
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.
人类在对金钱奖励进行跨期选择时常常表现出不耐烦，更倾向于立即获得的小奖励而非延迟获得的大奖励，这反映了一个基本的心理学原理：延迟折扣。然而，我们提出，情景预期（即人类能够生动地设想未来）对个体的延迟折扣有着强烈而广泛的影响。具体而言，情景预期可能通过预期的消极或积极情绪来影响个体的跨期选择。
方法/主要发现：本研究探讨了情景预期如何通过情绪调节延迟折扣。研究1表明，与不设想未来事件时相比，当参与者设想积极的未来事件时，他们更倾向于选择延迟但更大的奖励；研究2表明，与不设想未来事件时相比，当参与者设想消极的未来事件时，他们更倾向于选择即时但较小的奖励；相比之下，研究3表明，当参与者设想中性的未来事件时，他们的选择偏好与不设想未来事件时相同。
结论/意义：通过操纵情景预期的情绪效价，我们的研究结果表明，积极情绪使个体倾向于选择延迟奖励，而消极情绪使个体倾向于选择即时奖励。只有设想具有中性情绪的事件不会影响个体的选择偏好。因此，设想的未来事件的情绪效价可能在个体的跨期选择中发挥重要作用。情绪效价可能会影响个体延迟折扣的变化方向（促进或抑制），而设想未来事件的能力则会影响个体延迟折扣的变化程度。
