Perceptions and effectiveness of episodic future thinking as digital micro-interventions based on mobile health technology.

Abstract

Delay discounting denotes the tendency for humans to favor short-term immediate benefits over long-term future benefits. Episodic future thinking (EFT) is an intervention that addresses this tendency by having a person mentally "pre-experience" a future event to increase the perceived value of future benefits. This study explores the feasibility of using mobile health (mHealth) technology to deliver EFT micro-interventions. Micro-interventions are small, focused interventions aiming to achieve goals while matching users' often limited willingness or capacity to engage with interventions. We aim to explore whether EFT delivered as digital micro-interventions can reduce delay discounting, the users' perceptions, and if there are differences between regular EFT and goal-oriented EFT (gEFT), a variant where goals are embedded into future events. A randomized study was conducted with 208 participants allocated to either gEFT, EFT, or a control group for a 21-day study. Results indicate intervention groups when combined achieved a significant reduction of in delay discounting () compared to the control. When split into gEFT and EFT separately only the reduction of in EFT delay discounting was significant (). We further explore and discuss thematic user perceptions. Overall, user perceptions indicate gEFT may be slightly better for use in micro-interventions. However, perceptions also indicate that audio-based EFT micro-interventions were not always preferable to users, with findings suggesting that future EFT micro-interventions should be delivered using different forms of multimedia based on user preference and context and supported by other micro-interventions to maintain interest.