Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Discounting Future Losses

Columbia University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

Many important problems -- including insufficient savings, unhealthy behavior, and depletion of environmental resources -- involve short-sighted tradeoffs between immediate and future costs and benefits. In general, people sharply discount future outcomes, leading them to want good things now and put bad things off until later. Recent advances in neuroeconomics have revealed the processes by which people discount future rewards, yet little is known about how people evaluate future losses, in spite of behavior evidence suggesting large differences. The proposed research will investigate how and why losses are discounted differently from gains. Study research participants will make real choices between immediate and future gains and losses of varying amounts and delays. Meanwhile, their decision processes will be explored with behavioral methods, including thought listings, and neurological methods, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Thus, the project will investigate the reasons, emotions, and brain areas underlying discounting of losses. By discovering the ways in which discounting of losses is fundamentally different from discounting of gains, the proposed research will inform scientific thinking about discounting in psychology, economics, neuroscience, and related fields. Its applications should improve intertemporal decision making about losses, benefiting both individuals and society. Furthermore, this project will support advanced graduate training in psychology and neuroeconomics, preparing future researchers with cutting edge methods