Opportunity costs of reward delays and the discounting of hypothetical money and cigarettes

Humans are reported to discount delayed rewards at lower rates than nonhumans. However, nonhumans are studied in tasks that restrict reinforcement during delays, whereas humans are typically studied in tasks that do not restrict reinforcement during delays. In nonhuman tasks, the opportunity cost of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of the experimental analysis of behavior 2015-01, Vol.103 (1), p.87-107
Main Authors: Johnson, Patrick S., Herrmann, Evan S., Johnson, Matthew W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Behavioral psychology
cigarette
Computers
Costs and Cost Analysis
crowdsourcing
Delay Discounting
Economics, Behavioral
Experimental psychology
Female
human
Humans
hypothetical
Male
Models, Psychological
money
Opportunities
opportunity cost
Opportunity costs
Reward
Time Factors
Tobacco Products - economics
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Summary:Humans are reported to discount delayed rewards at lower rates than nonhumans. However, nonhumans are studied in tasks that restrict reinforcement during delays, whereas humans are typically studied in tasks that do not restrict reinforcement during delays. In nonhuman tasks, the opportunity cost of restricted reinforcement during delays may increase delay discounting rates. The present within‐subjects study used online crowdsourcing (Amazon Mechanical Turk, or MTurk) to assess the discounting of hypothetical delayed money (and cigarettes in smokers) under four hypothetical framing conditions differing in the availability of reinforcement during delays. At one extreme, participants were free to leave their computer without returning, and engage in any behavior during reward delays (modeling typical human tasks). At the opposite extreme, participants were required to stay at their computer and engage in little other behavior during reward delays (modeling typical nonhuman tasks). Discounting rates increased as an orderly function of opportunity cost. Results also indicated predominantly hyperbolic discounting, the “magnitude effect,” steeper discounting of cigarettes than money, and positive correlations between discounting rates of these commodities. This is the first study to test the effects of opportunity costs on discounting, and suggests that procedural differences may partially account for observed species differences in discounting.
ISSN:0022-5002
1938-3711
DOI:10.1002/jeab.110