Influence Of Future Self Continuity On Intertemporal Decision-making

Irrational intertemporal decision-making behaviors of college students may have a negative impact on their future development.The purpose of this study is to promote the rational intertemporal decision-making of college students.In this study,the immediate effect,the common difference effect and the self-other intertemporal decision making in intertemporal decision making were studied,and the intertemporal choice preference of individuals with different future self-continuity was explored in combination with self-control.In the first study,the results of intertemporal decision making of individuals with different future self-continuity were discussed from the perspective of self-others intertemporal decision making and intertemporal decision anomalies.Study 1 is divided into two experiments: Experiment 1a and Experiment 1b.Experiment 1a adopts a hybrid experimental design of 2(future self continuity: high vs.low)×2(decision-making perspective:self vs.others)×2(decision-making options: immediate option vs.non-immediate option).Among 104 effective subjects,52 were in the high future self-continuity group and 52 were in the low future self-continuity group.The results showed that there were significant differences in the grouping of future self-continuity,but there was no difference in the selection results of high and low future self-continuity individuals under the condition of immediate and non-immediate options in the self-others intertemporal decision-making,that is,there was no immediate effect.Experiment 1b adopts a mixed experimental design of2(future self continuity: high vs.low)× 2(decision perspectives: self vs.others)× 2(decision options: common difference option vs.non-common difference option).Among 102 effective subjects,51 were in the high future self-continuity group and 51 were in the low future self-continuity group.The results showed that there were significant differences in the grouping of future self-continuity,but there was no difference in the selection results of high and low future self-continuity individuals under the condition of common and non-common differences in self-others intertemporal decision-making,that is,there was no common difference effect.The second study will introduce self-control to further explore whether self-control has an impact on decision results when different future self-continuous individuals make intertemporal decisions.Study 2 was divided into two studies,experiment 2a and experiment2 b.Self-control was manipulated by two self-consuming tasks,Stroop task and "E" task,respectively.Experiment 2a adopted a hybrid experimental design of 2(future self continuity:high vs.low)×2(ego depletion: high vs.low)×2(decision options: immediate option vs.non-immediate option).Among 91 effective subjects,47 were in the high future self-continuity group and 44 were in the low future self-continuity group.The results showed that there were significant differences in future self-continuity grouping.There is interaction between future self continuity and self loss.There was no significant difference between high and low future self continuity individuals in the high and low self loss groups.Experiment 2b adopts a mixed experimental design of 2(future self-continuity: high vs.low)×2(ego depletion:high vs.low)×2(decision options: common difference option vs.non-common difference option).Among 81 effective subjects,40 were in the high future self-continuity group and 41 were in the low future self-continuity group.The results show that there are significant differences between high and low future self continuity groups.The main effect of ego depletion is significant.There was no significant difference in intertemporal decision selection among groups.In summary,this study found that: First,future self-continuity,as a psychological feature,does not directly affect intertemporal decision-making behavior of college students.Second,college students have a tendency to think of their future selves as other people.The results support the future self continuity hypothesis.Thirdly,the influence of self-control on different future self-continuity college students is different.