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Individual Differences in Intertemporal Choice

Intertemporal choice involves deciding between smaller, sooner and larger, later rewards. People tend to prefer smaller rewards that are available earlier to larger rewards available later, a phenomenon referred to as temporal or delay discounting. Despite its ubiquity in human and non-human animals, temporal discounting is subject to considerable individual differences. Here, we provide a critical narrative review of this literature and make suggestions for future work. We conclude that temporal discounting is associated with key socio-economic and health-related variables. Regarding personality, large-scale studies have found steeper temporal discounting to be associated with higher levels of self-reported impulsivity and extraversion; however, effect sizes are small. Temporal discounting correlates negatively with future-oriented cognitive styles and inhibitory control, again with small effect sizes. There are consistent associations between steeper temporal discounting and lower intelligence, with effect sizes exceeding those of personality or cognitive variables, although socio-demographic moderator variables may play a role. Neuroimaging evidence of brain structural and functional correlates is not yet consistent, neither with regard to areas nor directions of effects. Finally, following early candidate gene studies, recent Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) approaches have revealed the molecular genetic architecture of temporal discounting to be more complex than initially thought. Overall, the study of individual differences in temporal discounting is a maturing field that has produced some replicable findings. Effect sizes are small-to-medium, necessitating future hypothesis-driven work that prioritizes large samples with adequate power calculations. More research is also needed regarding the neural origins of individual differences in temporal discounting as well as the mediating neural mechanisms of associations of temporal discounting with personality and cognitive variables.

Aufstehen, Krone richten, weitergehen

Spektrum.de - Dez 14, 2020

Do Disadvantageous Social Contexts Influence Food Choice? Evidence From Three Laboratory Experiments

Increasing rates of obesity have fueled interest in the factors underlying food choice. While epidemiological studies report that disadvantaged social groups exhibit a higher incidence of obesity, causal evidence for an effect of social contexts on food choice remains scarce. To further our knowledge, we experimentally investigated the effect of disadvantageous social context on food choice in healthy, non-dieting participants. We used three established experimental methods to generate social contexts of different valence in controlled laboratory settings: (i) receiving varying amounts of money in a Dictator Game (DG; n = 40), (ii) being included or excluded in a Cyberball Game (CBG; n = 35), and (iii) performing well, average, or poorly in a response time ranking task (RTR; n = 81). Following exposure to a particular social context, participants made pairwise choices between food items that involved a conflict between perceived taste and health attributes. In line with previous research, stronger dispositional self-control (assessed via a questionnaire) was associated with healthier food choices. As expected, being treated unfairly in the DG, being excluded in the CBG, and performing poorly in the RTR led to negative emotions. However, we did not find an effect of the induced social context on food choice in any of the experiments, even when taking into account individual differences in participants’ responses to the social context. Our results suggest that—at least in controlled laboratory environments—the influence of disadvantageous social contexts on food choice is limited.

What to consider before shopping this Black Friday

Moneyweb - Nov 26, 2020

Study on decision-making behavior - Nerve cell activity shows how confident we are

Sott.net - Oct 09, 2020

Leichtathletik: Mit Hirntraining an die Weltspitze

ARD Sportschau - October 07, 2020

Augenbewegung und Persönlichkeit bei Kindern

European News Agency - Jul 05, 2020

Augenbewegung und Persönlichkeit bei Kindern

Pressemitteilung der Universität Bonn - Jul 03, 2020

Institutssekretär*in in Teilzeit für 24 Stunden die Woche am CENs gesucht

 

Klinik und Poliklinik für Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie (UKB) is looking for a PhD student

 

Combining baseline characteristics to disentangle response differences to disorder-specific versus supportive psychotherapy in patients with persistent depressive disorder

Does the pre-treatment profile of individuals with persistent depressive disorder (PDD) moderate their benefit from disorder-specific Cognitive Behavioral System of Psychotherapy (CBASP) versus supportive psychotherapy (SP)? We investigated this question by analyzing data from a multi-center randomized clinical trial comparing the effectiveness of 48 weeks of CBASP to SP in n = 237 patients with early-onset PDD who were not taking antidepressant medication. We statistically developed an optimal composite moderator as a weighted combination of 13 preselected baseline variables and used it for identifying and characterizing subgroups for which CABSP may be preferable to SP or vice versa. We identified two distinct subgroups: 58.65% of the patients had a better treatment outcome with CBASP, while the remaining 41.35% had a better outcome with SP. At baseline, patients responding more favorably to CBASP were more severely depressed and more likely affected by moderate-to-severe childhood trauma including early emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, as well as emotional or physical neglect. In contrast, patients responding more favorably to SP had a higher pre-treatment global and social functioning level, a higher life quality and more often a recurrent illness pattern without complete remission between the episodes. These findings emphasize the relevance of considering pre-treatment characteristics when selecting between disorder-specific CBASP and SP for treating PDD. The practical implementation of this approach would advance personalized medicine for PDD by supporting mental health practitioners in their selection of the most effective psychotherapy for an individual patient.

Prof. Bernd Weber ist neuer Dekan der Medizinischen Fakultät

ENA - Okt 03, 2019

Traumata verändern langfristig die Wahrnehmung

idw - Aug 19, 2019

Zuhören ist wichtiger als Reden

Zeit Online - Aug 14, 2019

Studentische/Wissenschaftliche Hilfskraft (m/w/d) für 9-10 Stunden die Woche für das CENs gesucht

 

Maßnahmen zur Senkung des Verbrauchs von Zuckergetränken

Science Media Center Germany - Jun 12, 2019

Weniger Zuckergetränke durch Kennzeichnung und hohe Preise

mdr - Jun 12, 2019

Wie positionieren wir uns in unserem wirtschaftlichen und finanziellen Leben?

SWR1 - May 20, 2019

Der korrekte Konsum

Phoenix plus - Apr 24, 2019