Temporal Discounting of Various Items to Examine Characteristics that Affect Rate of Discounting

Abstract

Individuals must make a vast amount of decisions every single day (e.g., what to wear, what to eat, what to do). Decisions are predictable when the alternatives differ in a single dimension (i.e., work for a job that has a large salary vs. a small salary, all else being equal). However, choices often involve outcomes that differ in multiple dimensions such as amount and delay (e.g., work a low-paying job right out of high school or receive a higher education for a higher-paying job in a few years). Currently, no research has examined temporal discounting of items with varying levels of exchange. While money can be exchanged for a wide variety of goods, gift cards/certificates can be exchanged for a limited range of goods. The current study examined the discounting of various items in order to further examine how the range of goods affect the rate of discounting.