Let's decide together: Differences between individual and joint delay discounting.

Diana Schwenke,Martin Georg Bleichner,Stefan Scherbaum,Maja Dshemuchadse,Cordula Vesper,Pablo Brañas-Garza

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0176003

Abstract

This study addressed the question whether or not social collaboration has an effect on delay discounting, the tendency to prefer sooner but smaller over later but larger delivered rewards. We applied a novel paradigm in which participants executed choices between two gains in an individual and in a dyadic decision-making condition. We observed how participants reached mutual consent via joystick movement coordination and found lower discounting and a higher decisions’ efficiency. In order to establish the underlying mechanism for dyadic variation, we further tested whether these differences emerge from social facilitation or inner group interchange.

Highlights

Whenever we feel torn between spending money for short-term enjoyment and long-term savings, we frequently devaluate long-term gains in favor of short-term temptations
In this study we address the question whether social collaboration affects decisions between delayed gains regarding two core dimensions: Based on the findings of risky group choices and surrogate delay discounting, we hypothesize that dyads show less impulsive decision-making and discount less than individuals
We could distinguish three separate levels of decision: (1) the individual decision, which was calculated as the average of both individual decisions within the individual decision-making condition; (2) the pre-decision, which was calculated as the average of both individual decisions within the dyadic decision-making condition by measuring their initial individual joystick-movements; (3) the dyadic decision, which was calculated as participants’ final decision by unanimous assent of both

Summary

Introduction

Whenever we feel torn between spending money for short-term enjoyment and long-term savings, we frequently devaluate long-term gains in favor of short-term temptations. Humans developed a generic strategy to overcome such unwanted temptations: we constitute binding agreements, ranging from friends collectively trying to lose weight to institutionally organized support groups. We cultivate this habit intuitively, the question of how two people jointly evaluate delay discounting decisions has not yet been addressed empirically. We study the potential impact of social collaboration on such tendencies. We study possible group-specific mechanisms by exploring final decisions but by putting a focus on the process of collaborative delay discounting decision-making

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Results

Conclusion