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discounting
You devalue future rewards to prioritize immediate, smaller gains.
A 1981 study found that participants often chose a smaller, immediate reward over a significantly larger reward available after a delay.
Hyperbolic discounting describes your tendency to prefer smaller rewards now because the psychological distance of the future makes distant gains seem less certain and less valuable.
You are biologically tuned to overvalue the present.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Ainslie, 1981
- What the check found
- Ainslie's 1981 paper 'Specious Reward' is the seminal work on this topic. While the empirical foundation dates back to his 1974 studies, the 1981 paper is widely cited as the definitive theoretical treatment.
- Confidence
- Well replicated
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.