The Impact Of Money Scarcity On Intertemporal Choice: The Role And Intervention Of Ruminatio

Intertemporal choice is a process of individuals choose and weigh the schemes with different benefits at different time points,and finally make decisions.When individuals are short of money,they will have a general sense of financial scarcity.Previous studies have shown that financial scarcity will lead individuals to pursue proximal interests,ignore long-term interests and make adverse economic decisions.This paper explores the influence mechanism of financial scarcity on intertemporal choice,and puts forward a possible mediator: financial rumination,and a possible intervention means: non-firstperson self-talk.This paper includes three studies.Study 1 discussed the relationship between the financial scarcity,financial rumination and intertemporal choices preliminarily.Using the questionnaire method,197 participants were recruited through the network platform as subjects,results show that:(1)the higher the financial scarcity,indicating a preference for smaller and sooner options;(2)the higher the financial scarcity,the higher the financial rumination;(3)financial rumination played mediator in the influence of financial scarcity on intertemporal choice.Study 2 using between the subjects of experimental design,119 participants were recruited through the network platform as subjects,randomly assigned to two kinds of experimental design(high financial scarcity /low financial scarcity).The results showed that:(1)high financial scarcity group showed a higher level of financial rumination than low financial scarcity group;(2)high financial scarcity group preferred the smaller and sooner options in the intertemporal choice than low financial scarcity group;(3)financial rumination plays a complete mediating role in financial scarcity and the preference for intertemporal choice.Study 3 introduced non-first-person self-talk,2(financial scarcity: high / low)× 2(intervention method: third-person self-talk / control group)between the subjects of experimental design to investigate the intervention effect.The results showed that:(1)under the condition of third-person self-talk,compared with the control group,the participants high in financial scarcity showed lower level of financial rumination,but had no significant effect on the participants low in financial scarcity;(2)Under the condition of third-person self-talk,compared with the control group,the participants high in financial scarcity prefer to choose larger and longer options,but had no significant effect on the participants low in financial scarcity;(3)third-person self-talk affects participants’ the preference for intertemporal choice in the high financial scarcity group,and financial rumination plays a medium role.Above all,it is concluded that financial scarcity will promote individuals to prefer smaller and sooner options in the intertemporal choices,and financial rumination mediates the effect between them.While third-person self-talk can reduce individuals’ financial rumination and further promote them to choose larger and longer options.