The Influence of Social Distance on Temporal Discounting: Is the Agent Less Impulsive?

Abstract

Individuals often prefer smaller immediate rewards over larger delayed ones, which is known as temporal discounting. However, there has been little research on the intertemporal decisions individuals make on behalf of other people. The current study therefore examined differences in temporal discounting when deciding for oneself and others, and also measured differences between socially close others and distant others. The affect/cognition theory and the construal level theory suggest that when making a decision for someone else, there is less attention to subjective experiences that would favour immediate gratification. Therefore it was expected that individuals make more patient decisions as social distance increases. To examine this, participants performed a monetary choice task with intertemporal decisions for oneself, on behalf of a close other and a distant other. Social distance was manipulated using ratings of familiarity and similarity. In contrast to the hypothesis, the results revealed no significant effect of social distance on temporal discounting, suggesting social distance might not have a meaningful role in temporal discounting. A significant magnitude effect was observed, but no significant interaction with social distance. Recommendations for future research are made regarding framing effects and affective evaluations that might influence the relationship between social distance and temporal discounting.