The Effect Of Money Scarcity On Intertemporal Decision-making:the Mediating Role Of Risk Perception

Intertemporal decision making has been widely concerned and studied in many disciplines,and it has a very profound influence on the healthy development of individuals.The perception of money scarcity has been proved by many studies to affect individuals’ preference for intertemporal decision making.Specifically,the higher the perception of money scarcity,the more inclined individuals are to obtain immediate small gains and ignore future high gains,thus displaying more short-sighted behaviors.However,existing studies still have inconsistent conclusions on the relationship between money scarcity and intertemporal decision making,the reason may be that individuals are in different money scarcity states when the sense of scarcity is generated;At the same time,the previous research on money scarcity and intertemporal decision-making mechanism is still insufficient.Based on this,this study first discusses the impact of money scarcity perception on intertemporal decision-making under different conditions of money scarcity.On the basis of obtaining clearer evidence,it further discusses the influence mechanism of money scarcity perception and intertemporal decision-making.In study Ⅰ,individuals’ performance in intertemporal decision making was examined by priming the perception of scarcity under different states of money scarcity.The results showed that there was no significant difference in the perceived money scarcity score between the group experiencing money scarcity and the group not experiencing money scarcity,and there was no significant difference in the level of delay discounting between the two groups.In the second study,two substudies were set up to verify the mediating role of risk perception in money scarcity perception and intertemporal decision making.In study Ⅱa,individuals’ sense of scarcity was manipulated by recalling scarcity experiences,and risk perception and delay discounting levels were measured.The results showed that the higher the perception of money scarcity,the higher the level of risk perception and delay discount,the risk perception played a partial mediating role in the perception of money scarcity and intertemporal decision-making.However,the "past experience" involved in the priming of recalling scarce experiences can affect risk perception.Therefore,study IIb manipulated the perception of scarcity by imagining future scarcity,and further explored whether the mediating role of risk perception could be verified repeatedly after excluding the interference of past experience.The results show that money scarcity can still positively predict the level of risk perception and delay discount,and the mediation of risk perception is still valid after excluding the interference of past experience.According to the results,the following conclusions can be drawn: different states of money scarcity do not significantly affect the relationship between money scarcity and intertemporal decision making,compared with the state of money scarcity,the psychological sense of money scarcity is the fundamental reason affecting the intertemporal decision making.Risk perception plays a partial mediating role in the perception of money scarcity and intertemporal decision-making,that is,the higher the perception of money scarcity,the higher the perceived risk and uncertainty of delayed returns,so individuals are more inclined to choose immediate small returns.This study further clarified the relationship between money scarcity and intertemporal decision making and the psychological mechanism behind it,which has certain practical significance for understanding the irrational decision making behavior caused by money scarcity.