Potentially real and hypothetical food and monetary outcomes in delay and probability discounting are similar in a Czech sample

Abstract

ABSTRACT Most of the studies that compare potentially real (PR) to hypothetical outcomes with delay discounting (DD) and probability discounting (PD) compare monetary outcomes in American college samples and shows that hypothetical and PR monetary outcomes are discounted at similar rates. Fewer, if any, studies have examined discounting for PR vs hypothetical outcomes in non-American samples with outcomes other than money. Using a choice-questionnaire format and a within-subjects design, the relation between PR and hypothetical outcomes was examined in a Czech Republic sample. Importantly, food-related and monetary outcomes for both delay and probability discounting were examined. Sixty participants were recruited from the greater Prague area and completed four discounting tasks: the Food Choice Questionnaire, Monetary Choice Questionnaire, Probability Monetary Choice Questionnaire, and Probability Food Questionnaire in randomized order for both PR and hypothetical outcomes. Each of these measures has three magnitudes of outcomes embedded in the choices. For food-related outcomes, PR and hypothetical food outcomes were discounted similarly and significantly correlated across two of the three magnitudes of the Food Choice Questionnaire and across all three magnitudes of the Probability Food Choice Questionnaire. For monetary outcomes, PR outcomes and hypothetical outcomes were discounted similarly and were significantly correlated across all magnitudes of the Monetary Choice Questionnaire and Probability Monetary Choice Questionnaire. Magnitude effects were found across all four measures. These findings suggest that hypothetical and PR food and money outcomes are discounted similarly for both DD and PD and extends the discounting literature on similarity between real and hypothetical discounting to food-related outcomes to European community samples and discounting choice questionnaires.