ABSTRACT

Delay Discounting (DD) or devaluing a future, larger reward in favour of a smaller, more immediate reward, has been linked to negative health behaviours. One intervention that reduces DD is Episodic Future Thinking (EFT). EFT has participants generate cues representing positive future events that correspond to temporal windows during the DD task. The current study examined if incorporating EFT cues into narratives would strengthen effects on DD. One hundred and sixty adults were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk and were randomised to traditional or narrative EFT. Results showed that participants in narrative EFT discounted the future less (p = 0.034) than participants who engaged in traditional EFT. This novel approach to EFT is well grounded in research and theory on the power of narratives to influence behaviour and can open a new window into ways to reduce DD to strengthen engagement in positive choices.

摘要

延迟贴现 (DD) 或贬低未来较大的奖励以支持较小的、更直接的奖励，与不良健康行为有关。减少 DD 的一种干预措施是情景未来思维 (EFT)。EFT 让参与者生成代表未来积极事件的线索，这些线索对应于 DD 任务期间的时间窗口。当前的研究检验了将 EFT 线索纳入叙事中是否会增强对 DD 的影响。从 Amazon Mechanical Turk 招募了 160 名成年人，并随机分配到传统或叙事 EFT。结果显示，参与叙事 EFT 的参与者 比参与传统 EFT 的参与者对未来的折扣更少（ p = 0.034）。这种新颖的 EFT 方法以叙事影响行为的力量的研究和理论为基础，并且可以打开一扇新的窗口，了解如何减少 DD 以加强积极选择的参与。