The Effect Of Emotional Labels Of Mental Accounts On Intertemporal Decision-making In Profit And Loss Scenarios

Intertemporal choice is the study of individual decision making at different time points under the influence of various influencing factors.Among them,the research on the influence of emotion has gradually become a new trend.In the study on intertemporal choice with money as the object of decision,the elicitation of individual emotions is mostly prior to and unrelated to the task,hence,most studies on emotion and intertemporal choice only focus on the influence of emotion before decision-making,instead of considering the role of emotion in and after decision making.The influence of the nature of money on intertemporal choice has not yet been discussed.Psychological account theory believes that the emotions attached to the process of wealth source will label the money with corresponding emotional labels.It is worth discussing whether the emotions caused by the financial affective tag have a certain impact on intertemporal choice.In this study,affective tag of money is used to represent affective tag of psychological account,both of which have the same meaning.Four studies were designed to find out how affective tag on people’s mental accounts of money affect intertemporal choice.Each study attempts to explore the behavioral differences of intertemporal choice in the context of gains and losses by setting the context of gains and losses.Study 1,79 and 67 participants as final data analyzed by two expriments respectively,aims to explore whether the affective tag of money affect discounting rate.The results showed that affective tag of money affected discounting rate,situation also affected the discounting rate significantly,and interaction between the two factors were significant,there was a mediating effect of affective tag on discounting rate in the gain situation.Study 2 in research basis,in order to rule out money type(given,not given),we also analyzed the final data of 139 and 145 participants respectively,the results showed that the situation still plaied a moderating role of affective tag on discounting rate,and only in gain situation,the mediation effect when money were given from others.On the basis of study 2,study 3 excluded the role of money sources(windfalls,wages)and analyzed the final data of 111 and 124 people respectively through two experiments.The results showed that money sources did not affect the time discount rate.Study 4 based on the previous three study,explore the role of the individual decision-making style,the control variable was windfall given by others.It divided into gains and losses to analyze 119 and 120 participants,respectively.Results showed that the situation was still the moderator of affective tag influencing discounting rate,in the gain situation,the above mediating effect exists only when the decision-maker is in the perceptual decision-making style.Through the above research,the following conclusions are drawn:(1)the gain and loss situation affects the intertemporal choice.The discounting rate in the gain situation is greater than that in the loss situation.Individuals prefer to avoid risks in the gain situation,while individuals prefer to seek risks in the loss situation.(2)In the gain situation,the affective tag of mental account affects the intertemporal choice,the discounting rate of positive affective tag money is smaller than that of negative affective tag,individuals tend to choose small rewards immediately after generating negative emotion,while in the loss situation,and the affective tag of money has no significant effect on the discounting rate.(3)In the gain situation,for the money given by others,affective tag in mental accounts affect the discounting rate by acting on individuals’ sense of possession of money and preference for money,while there is no such mediating effect in the loss situation and the money not given by others.(4)in the gain situation,when the perceptual decision-maker makes a decision,there is a mediating effect of affective tag on the discounting rate through money preference,but there is no similar mediating effect for the rational decision-maker and the loss situation.(5)In the intertemporal choice of different gain and loss situations,the cognitive label of mental account has no significant influence on the discounting rate.This study expands the new thinking of the research in the field of intertemporal choice and mental account.It not only expands the research on the influence of emotion on intertemporal choice from pre-decision emotion to decision making and predictable post-decision emotion,but also proposes a new influencing factor of intertemporal choice--mental account,which enriches the research results of intertemporal choice.In addition,from the research design step by step,and explore the complex decision-making situation,to provide scientific basis for people in real life intertemporal choice.