No abstract

Intertemporal choices refer to decisions involving tradeoffs between costs and benefits at different times. Two types of models, namely, attribute-and alternative-based models, have been developed to account for the intertemporal choices of individuals.Although behavioral evidence favors attribute-based models, eye-tracking data have produced mixed evidence. Examining the causal link between eye gaze and intertemporal choice may help resolve the controversy in these two intertemporal models.This study then performs a gaze-contingent manipulation to direct the gaze time of the participants while they are choosing between two intertemporal options. The intertemporal choices of these participants were found to be biased toward a randomly determined target when their gazes were directed to the target attribute (Study 1, N = 45), but their choices were not biased when their gazes were directed to the target option (Study 2, N = 45). The gazed longer attribute also mediated the effect of gaze-contingent manipulation on intertemporal choice. These findings suggest a causal link between intertemporal choices and the gaze-contingent manipulation of the attribute-based gaze pattern and contribute to the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms and processes involved in making intertemporal choices.

We are constantly faced with decisive situations in which the options are not presented simultaneously. How the information of options is presented might influence the subsequent decision-making. For instance, presenting the information of options in an alternative- or dimension-wise manner may affect searching patterns and thus lead to different choices. In this study, the effects of this manner of information presentation on risky choice according to two experiments (Experiment 1, N = 45; Experiment 2, N = 50) are systematically examined. Specifically, two tasks with different presentation are conducted. Participants could search the information of one option (alternative-wise task) or dimension (dimension-wise task) for each time. Results revealed that the participants assigned in the alternative-wise task exhibited more choices consistent with expected value theory and took a longer decision time than those in the dimension-wise task. Moreover, the effect of task on choice was mediated by the direction of information search. These findings suggest a relationship between information search pattern and risky choice and allow for a better understanding of the mechanisms and processes involved in risky choice.

Freedom from fear and freedom from want are two of the fundamental freedoms and likely related to changes in the environment. It has usually been assumed that our subjective feelings should change accordingly with changes in the objective environment. However, two counterintuitive effects reviewed in this article imply a rather complex psychological mechanism behind how people respond to environmental changes and strive for the freedom from fear and want. The first is the 'psychological typhoon eye' effect, in which the closer people are to hazards, the calmer they feel. Several possible explanations have been proposed, but the mechanism behind this effect remains unclear. The findings are important for future post-disaster interventions and helpful for policy makers in risk management and researchers in risk studies. The second effect is the 'town dislocation' effect, wherein although inhabitants' objective quality of life is improved during the urbanisation process, the projected endorsement and rated social ambience of town residents is lower than that of residents in the country and in the city; this effect is mediated by social support. The findings have implications for how to better assess the urbanisation process and how to improve people's affective appraisals of their living environment. Keywords: environmental changes, psychological typhoon eye, town dislocation effectAccording to Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941), 'freedom from fear' and 'freedom from want' are two of the fundamental freedoms. These freedoms are regarded as the two pillars of the United Nations Millennium Declaration's Goals for the international community (United Nations, 2009). A crucial question to ask is: How can these two freedoms be ranked among the choicest of our fundamental freedoms? To put it another way, what is the universal reason underlying our motivation to strive for freedom from fear and freedom from want?In considering this question, it is important to note that the proposal of these two freedoms is relevant to the past and ongoing changes in the environment we live in. The environment we live in is undergoing constant changes, sometimes for the worse, sometimes for the better. On one hand, environmental disasters (e.g., earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, tsunamis, pollutions, and wars) devastate the environment, making it a worse place to live. In this case, we seek to be free from the fear caused by the environmental changes. On the other hand, in order to be free Sciences, Beijing 100101, China. Email: lishu@psych.ac.cn * These authors contributed equally to this work. Address for correspondence: Shu Li, CAS Key Laboratory of Behavioral Science, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy offrom want, human beings have always been active in the transformation of the natural environment, making it a better place to live. In this case, industrialisation and urbanisation have served as effective approaches to helping local residents move from poverty to prosperity. It is becoming clear that in the face of environmental ch...

No abstract