Are Impulsive Decisions Always Irrational? An Experimental Investigation of Impulsive Decisions in the Domains of Gains and Losses.

Renata M Heilman,Alessia Passanisi,Mircea Miclea,Ugo Pace,Petko Kusev,Joseph Teal,Rose Martin

doi:10.3390/ijerph18168518

Abstract

Intertemporal choices are very prevalent in daily life, ranging from simple, mundane decisions to highly consequential decisions. In this context, thinking about the future and making sound decisions are crucial to promoting mental and physical health, as well as a financially sustainable lifestyle. In the present study, we set out to investigate some of the possible underlying mechanisms, such as cognitive factors and emotional states, that promote future-oriented decisions. In a cross-sectional experimental study, we used a gain and a loss version of an intertemporal monetary choices task. Our main behavioural result indicated that people are substantially more impulsive over smaller and sooner monetary losses compared to equivalent gains. In addition, for both decisional domains, significant individual difference predictors emerged, indicating that intertemporal choices are sensitive to the affective and cognitive parameters. By focusing on the cognitive and emotional individual factors that influence impulsive decisions, our study could constitute a building block for successful future intervention programs targeted at mental and physical health issues, including gambling behaviour.

Highlights

Behavioural economics, an interdisciplinary field combining psychological insights into the economic theory of decision-making, addresses various relevant decisional situations [1]
After a review of some critical papers on intertemporal choices, we argue for the necessity of addressing two major limitations currently in the delay discounting literature: (1) considering the mixed results obtained in previous studies regarding “the sign effect”, we view the investigation of the decisional domain effect in intertemporal choices as extremely relevant and (2) an in-depth investigation of the common or specific cognitive and emotional factors that contribute to delay discounting for gains and losses
Considering there are significant differences between delay discounting over gains vs. losses, we argued that it would be worth extending the investigation of some of the underlying mechanisms from intertemporal choices over gains to the domain of losses

Summary

Introduction

Behavioural economics, an interdisciplinary field combining psychological insights into the economic theory of decision-making, addresses various relevant decisional situations [1]. Intertemporal choices are very prevalent in daily life, ranging from simple, mundane decisions (such as choosing between going to a movie or working on a school project that is due) to highly consequential decisions (such as choosing between eating a tasty snack daily or sticking to a healthy diet). In this context, thinking about the future and making sound decisions are crucial to promoting mental and physical health, as well as a financially sustainable lifestyle. We set out to investigate some of the possible

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