The influence of temporal focus on individual intertemporal decision-making in life history strategy framework

Abstract

Temporal factors have an important role in intertemporal decision-making. Temporal focus is the extent to which individuals characteristically direct their attention to the past, present, and/or future. Temporal focus can influence resource allocation. It was not known, however, whether temporal focus might affect intertemporal decision-making. The purpose of this study is to investigate how life history strategies and temporal focus together influence intertemporal decision-making. Study 1 used a questionnaire to preliminarily explore the relationship between temporal focus and intertemporal decision-making. Results showed that temporal focus was positively associated with individuals' intertemporal decision preferences, and the more individuals preferred future focus, the higher their rate of temporal discounting. Study 2 examined the joint effect of the temporal focus and life history strategy on intertemporal decision-making by manipulating the temporal focus of individuals with different life history strategies. The manipulation of temporal focus influenced intertemporal decision preferences of fast strategy individuals, that is, the short-term small reward in the future focus and the long-term large reward in the past focus, but has no effect on the intertemporal decision preference of slow strategy individuals. The entire study confirms life history theory and validates the role of perceptual time-based models in intertemporal decision-making.