Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, United States; Graduate Program in Translational Biology, Medicine, and Health, Virginia Tech, United States.
Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at Virginia Tech Carilion, United States.
Behav Processes. 2023 Sep;211:104928. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2023.104928. Epub 2023 Aug 2.
Prior studies suggest that scarcity increases delay discounting (devaluation of delayed outcomes) and disturbs other decision-making processes. Evidence on the effect of COVID-19 on delay discounting is mixed. Also, no study has examined the effect of COVID-19-related scarcity on probability discounting (devaluation of probabilistic outcomes). The goal of the study was to examine cross-sectional associations between financial impact during the COVID-19 pandemic, delay discounting, and probability discounting. During April 2020, 1012 participants with low income were recruited on Amazon Mechanical Turk and completed measures of delay and probability discounting, perceived COVID-19-related financial impacts, and food security. Regression analyses indicate that compared to those with no COVID-19-related financial impacts, those with severe COVID-19-related financial impacts had greater delay discounting of money and greater delay discounting of a grocery gift card. Also, greater food insecurity in the past month was associated with greater delay discounting of a grocery gift card but not delay discounting of money. Perceived COVID-19 related financial impact was not associated with probability discounting. Combined with laboratory experiments, this study provides additional support for the idea that feelings of scarcity may increase delay discounting. However, as this study was observational, no assumptions of causality should be made about the specific effect of COVID-19 on delay discounting.
先前的研究表明，资源稀缺会增加延迟折扣（即对延迟结果的估值降低），并扰乱其他决策过程。关于 COVID-19 对延迟折扣的影响的证据是混杂的。此外，尚无研究检验过与 COVID-19 相关的资源稀缺对概率折扣（即对概率结果的估值降低）的影响。本研究旨在检验 COVID-19 大流行期间的财务影响、延迟折扣和概率折扣之间的横断面关联。2020 年 4 月，在亚马逊 Mechanical Turk 上招募了 1012 名低收入参与者，并完成了延迟折扣和概率折扣、感知到的 COVID-19 相关财务影响以及粮食安全的测量。回归分析表明，与那些没有 COVID-19 相关财务影响的人相比，那些有严重 COVID-19 相关财务影响的人对金钱的延迟折扣更大，对食品杂货礼品卡的延迟折扣也更大。此外，过去一个月中更大的粮食不安全感与食品杂货礼品卡的延迟折扣更大有关，但与金钱的延迟折扣无关。感知到的 COVID-19 相关财务影响与概率折扣无关。结合实验室实验，这项研究为这样一种观点提供了额外的支持，即稀缺感可能会增加延迟折扣。然而，由于本研究是观察性的，因此不应对 COVID-19 对延迟折扣的具体影响做出因果关系的假设。
