Citation

Białaszek W, Gaik M, McGoun E, Zielonka P. Front. Psychol. 2015; 6: e515.

Affiliation

Department of Econophysics, Warsaw University of Life Sciences , Warsaw, Poland ; Department of Economic Psychology, Kozminski University , Warsaw, Poland.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Frontiers Research Foundation)

DOI

10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00515

PMID

25999872

PMCID

PMC4419605

Abstract

Impulsivity has been defined as choosing the smaller more immediate reward over a larger more delayed reward. The purpose of this research was to gain a deeper understanding of the mental processes involved in the decision making. We examined participants' rates of delay discounting and probability discounting to determine their correlation with time-probability trade-offs. To establish the time-probability trade-off rate, participants adjusted a risky, immediate payoff to a delayed, certain payoff. In effect, this yielded a probability equivalent of waiting time. We found a strong, positive correlation between delay discount rates and the time-probability trade-offs. This means that impulsive people have a compulsion for immediate gratification, independent of whether the immediate reward is certain or uncertain. Thus, they seem not to be concerned with risk but rather with time.

Language: en