Effects of emotion on intertemporal decision-making: Explanation from the single dimension priority model

View of Times and Temporal Focus under the Pace of Life on the Impact of Intertemporal Decision Making

Previous studies have explored the effects of time poverty and money worship on intertemporal decision making based on a resource scarcity perspective. However, how the pace of life affects intertemporal decision making has not been examined. Furthermore, manipulating time perceptions can influence intertemporal decision-making preferences. Based on the perspective of time perception differences, it remains unknown how views of time or temporal focus affect the intertemporal decision making of individuals with different pace of life. To address these issues, study 1 adopted a correlational study to initially explore the relationship between the pace of life and intertemporal decision making. Studies 2 and 3 used manipulation experiments to examine the effects of the pace of life and view of time and temporal focus and pace of life on intertemporal decision making. The results suggest that the faster the life pace, the more recent rewards are preferred. Views of time and temporal focus manipulations can influence the intertemporal decision making of faster-paced individuals, making them prefer smaller-sooner (SS) payoffs under a linear view of time or future temporal focus and larger-later (LL) payoffs under a circular view of time or past temporal focus. However, the manipulation does not affect the intertemporal decision of slower-paced individuals. Our study examined the effect of the pace of life on intertemporal decision making based on a resource scarcity perspective, and found boundary conditions for the influence of the view of time and temporal focus on intertemporal decision making based on the perspective of differences in people's perception of time.

Carpe diem or carpe mañana? Emotion priming affects intertemporal choice among Internet addicts and normal Internet users

In this digitalized era, Internet addiction has been a severe problem that needs imperative solutions derived from the same mechanism that leads to its addiction. To uncover a more nuanced mechanism for Internet addiction in association with decision-making focus and emotions and thus generate effective interventions, we conducted three experiments to investigate how various forms of emotion priming affect intertemporal choice among Internet addicts and normal Internet users. We divided the emotions into three categories, namely emotional valence (negative and positive emotions), expected emotion type (expected regret, expected joy), and current emotion type (current regret, current joy). In experiment one, we examined the effect of two participant types (Internet addicts and normal Internet users) with three emotion valences (positive, negative, and neutral). In experiment two, we examined the effect of two participant types (Internet addicts and normal Internet users) with three current emotion types (current regret, joy, and neutral). In experiment three, we examined the effect of two participant types (Internet addicts and normal Internet users) with two expected emotion types (expected regret and expected joy). We conducted a completely randomized experimental design in each experiment and used subjective value as the dependent variable index of intertemporal choice. The results showed that the subjective value of Internet addicts was significantly lower than that of normal Internet users across three studies. The subjective value of individuals primed with positive emotions was significantly higher than those primed with negative emotions, no matter whether they were normal Internet users or addicts (experiment one). The subjective value of individuals primed with expected joy was significantly higher than those primed with expected regret, no matter whether they were normal Internet users or addicts (experiment three). When primed with current joy, however, the Internet addicts' subjective value was significantly lower than when primed with current regret, but this did not apply to normal Internet users (experiment two). These results suggest positive emotions and expected joy enhanced long-term goals and greater rewards focus on intertemporal decision-making compared to negative emotions and expected regret. However, current joy facilitated short-term goals, and smaller rewards focus on intertemporal decision-making compared to current regret. The theoretical and practical implications for Internet addiction are also discussed in this paper.