Study of Intertemporal Discounting According to Age Groups

The paper focuses on the topic of intertemporal discounting of individuals according to age groups. Using the sample of examined individuals, it aims to verify the hypothesis that the patience of individuals decreases with their increasing age. The study included a total of 599 individuals with an average age of 38.3 years (min. 16 and max. 82 years) who answered classical questions focused on time discounting and impulsive behaviour. In total, four possible scenarios were analysed: a small reward (CZK 100) with a delay of 1 day, a small reward with a delay of 1 month, a large reward (CZK 100,000) with a delay of 1 day and a large reward with a delay of 1 month. The delayed reward was always increased by 10% (i.e., CZK 110 or CZK 110,000). The basic hypothesis was that with increasing age, the subjective discount rate increases i.e., patience decreases. The above-mentioned 4 scenarios were evaluated for the hypotheses, while only three of the four scenarios were confirmed for all hypotheses. The results in the examined individuals suggest that with increasing age, there is a decrease in patience and at the same time a decrease in impulsive behaviour. These findings may have an overlap in consumption or savings in relation to the aging population.

Effects of a virtual gender swap on social and temporal decision-making

Mounting evidence has demonstrated that embodied virtual reality, during which physical bodies are replaced with virtual surrogates, can strongly alter cognition and behavior even when the virtual body radically differs from one’s own. One particular emergent area of interest is the investigation of how virtual gender swaps can influence choice behaviors. Economic decision-making paradigms have repeatedly shown that women tend to display more prosocial sharing choices than men. To examine whether a virtual gender swap can alter gender-specific differences in prosociality, 48 men and 51 women embodied either a same- or different-gender avatar in immersive virtual reality. In a between-subjects design, we differentiated between specifically social and non-social decision-making by means of a virtually administered interpersonal and intertemporal discounting task, respectively. We hypothesized that a virtual gender swap would elicit social behaviors that stereotypically align with the gender of the avatar. To relate potential effects to changes in self-perception, we also measured implicit and explicit identification with gendered (or gender-typical) traits prior to and following the virtual experience, and used questionnaires that assessed the strength of the illusion. Contrary to our hypothesis, our results show that participants made less prosocial decisions (i.e., became more selfish) in different-gender avatars, independent of their own biological sex. Moreover, women embodying a male avatar in particular were more sensitive to temptations of immediate rewards. Lastly, the manipulation had no effects on implicit and explicit identification with gendered traits. To conclude, while we showed that a virtual gender swap indeed alters decision-making, gender-based expectancies cannot account for all the task-specific interpersonal and intertemporal changes following the virtual gender swap.

Optimal Incentives Schemes under Homo Moralis Preferences

This study focuses on the optimal incentive schemes in a multi-agent moral hazard model, where each agent has other-regarding preferences and an individual measure of output, with both being observable by the principal. In particular, the two agents display homo moralis preferences. I find that, contrary to the case with purely selfish preferences, tournaments can never be optimal when agents are risk averse, and as the degree of morality increases, positive payments are made in a larger number of output realizations. Furthermore, I extend the analysis to a dynamic setting, in which a contract is initially offered to the agents, who then repeatedly choose which level of effort to provide in each period. I show that the optimal incentive schemes in this case are similar to the ones obtained in the static setting, but for the role of intertemporal discounting.

How The Virtually Embodied Gender Influences Social and Temporal Decision Making

Mounting evidence has demonstrated that embodied virtual reality, during which physical bodies are replaced with virtual surrogates, can strongly alter cognition and behavior even when the virtual body radically differs from one’s own. One particular emergent area of interest is the investigation of how virtual gender swaps can influence choice behaviors. Economic decision making paradigms have repeatedly shown that women tend to display more prosocial sharing choices than men. To examine whether a virtual gender swap can alter gender-specific differences in prosociality, 48 men and 51 women embodied either a same- or different-gender avatar in immersive virtual reality. In a between-subjects design, we differentiated between specifically social and non-social decision making by means of an interpersonal and intertemporal discounting task, respectively. We hypothesized that a virtual gender swap would elicit social behaviors that stereotypically align with the gender of the avatar. To relate potential effects to changes in self-perception, we measured implicit and explicit gender identification, and used questionnaires that assessed the strength of the illusion. Contrary to our hypothesis, our results show that participants made less prosocial decisions (i.e., became more selfish) in different-gender avatars, independent of their own biological sex. Moreover, women embodying a male avatar in particular were more sensitive to temptations of immediate rewards. Lastly, the manipulation had no effects on implicit and explicit gender identification. To conclude, while we showed that a virtual gender swap indeed alters decision making, gender-based expectancies cannot account for all the task-specific interpersonal and intertemporal changes following the virtual gender swap.

EXPRESS: Psychological Ownership of (Borrowed) Money

The current research introduces the concept of psychological ownership of borrowed money, a construct that represents how much consumers feel that borrowed money is their own. We observe both individual-level and contextual-level variation in the degree to which consumers feel psychological ownership of borrowed money, and variation on this dimension predicts willingness to borrow money for discretionary purchases. At an individual level, psychological ownership of borrowed money is distinct from other individual factors such as debt aversion, financial literacy, income, intertemporal discounting, materialism, propensity to plan, self-control, spare money, and tightwad-spendthrift tendencies, and it predicts willingness to borrow above and beyond these factors. At a contextual level, we document systematic differences in psychological ownership between different debt types. We show that these differences in psychological ownership manifest in consumers’ online search behavior and explain consumers’ differential interest in borrowing across debt types. Finally, we demonstrate that psychological ownership of borrowed money is malleable, such that framing debt in terms of lower psychological ownership can reduce consumers’ propensity to borrow.

Is resolve mainly about resisting hyperbolic discounting?

Ainslie insightfully refines the concept of willpower by emphasizing low-effort applications of resolve. However, he gives undue weight to intertemporal discounting as the problem that willpower is needed to overcome. Nonhumans typically don't encounter choices that differ only in the time of consumption. Humans learn to transform uncertainty into problems they can solve using culturally evolved mechanisms for quantifying risk.

Measuring perceptions of post-conflict actors’ economic behavior: the case of Colombia

Exposure to violence has lasting effects on economic behavior years after it has ended. Previous literature has proved that there is an increase in altruism, impatience, and risk-seeking. However, it is unknown if regular citizens, not directly involved in the conflict, perceive such economic behavior in post-conflict actors. We asked participants to report, relative to them, how Colombia's post-conflict actors (ex-guerrillas, ex-paramilitaries, and victims) behave in different economic games (dictator game, lotteries, and intertemporal discounting). Our sample of university students believes that victims are less altruistic than current evidence with real victims, not particularly risky, and impatient. Also, that former combatants are risk-seeking, impatient, and altruistic towards victims. These beliefs about post-conflict actors' economic behavior do not consistently coincide with behavioral changes found in actual actors involved in violence and could guide reintegration policies.

A Note on Intertemporal Discounting and Nudging

Several challenges and rising costs are facing the healthcare industry today. Some of these health costs are a direct consequence of lifestyle choices such as unhealth diets, obesity and smoking. These challenges can be managed if policy makers have the tools to influence and alter people’s behaviour. The conventional tools used for influencing behaviour include legislation, regulation and information provision. Recently, interest has been shown in policies that ‘nudge’ people in particular directions.

Fiduciary Law and Psychology

This chapter considers the psychology of fiduciary law, with particular emphasis on how the principal-agent dynamic affects judgment and decision-making. From a decision-making perspective, a characteristic of fiduciary behavior is that fiduciaries choose for others. Behavioral decision research has focused on the ways that actors decide differently when they are acting for others rather than acting for themselves. To introduce readers to the psychology of self-other decision-making, this chapter reviews the theoretical framework within which these questions have been situated, along with some of the most relevant and intriguing experimental research. Three principal areas of research are discussed: the effect of social distance on the mental operations utilized in judgment under uncertainty; the moral psychology phenomena around navigating conflicts of interest; and the specific social dynamics of deciding in the context of a relationship, whether one-shot or ongoing. The chapter examines the concept of “psychological distance” as an integral component of construal level theory, and the extent to which heuristics and biases are acute for agents and principals. Along the way, Prospect Theory and concepts such as loss aversion, risk perceptions, intertemporal discounting, self-serving biases, disclosure approaches to regulating conflicts of interest, impression management, accountability, and hindsight bias are explored.