Imagining the Future Reduces Delay Discounting

Imagining the Future Reduces Delay Discounting

Reviewed by Faisal Zaidi

Vividly picturing specific future events makes people more willing to wait for a larger later reward.

What it is

Benoit, Gilbert and Burgess had participants either imagine specific future spending events or estimate what money could buy. Imagining the future shifted choices toward larger later rewards, and activity in the medial rostral prefrontal cortex predicted these choices and tracked the value of the imagined events.

In effect

In the article on delayed gratification, it is the practical lever: making the later reward concrete.

What it does not say

It was tested with choices about money in laboratory settings and does not say how long the effect lasts.

Sources

  1. Benoit, R. G., Gilbert, S. J., & Burgess, P. W. (2011). A neural mechanism mediating the impact of episodic prospection on farsighted decisions. The Journal of Neuroscience, 31(18), 6771-6779.