A meta-analysis of the effects of episodic future thinking on delay discounting

Ye, Jun‐yan; Ding, Qing‐yu; Cui, Jian; Liu, Zhe; Jia, Lu-Xia; Qin, Xiujuan; Xu, Hua; Wang, Ya

doi:10.1177/17470218211066282

Cited by 32 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 97 publications

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“…Thus, this might restrict the range of emotion valence, suppressing possible differences among DD between positive and negative nonalcohol EFT conditions. Even if this is the case, our result is still contradictory to two meta-analytic results suggesting negative EFT did not have effects on DD (Rösch et al, 2021; Ye et al, 2021). Nevertheless, these meta-analytic results were based on only four studies and none of them were conducted with American samples, so more study is needed to answer whether negative EFT has an effect on DD.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

“…EFT refers to the capacity to imagine experiences that may occur in one's personal future (Szpunar, 2010). Recent meta-analyses show EFT could effectively reduce DD, although inconsistent results are reported (Rösch et al, 2021;Ye et al, 2021). Specifically, research has demonstrated EFT can reduce DD among individuals using substances (e.g., Bulley & Gullo, 2017;Forster et al, 2021;García-Pérez et al, 2022;Mellis et al, 2019;Patel & Amlung, 2020;Snider et al, 2016;Sofis et al, 2020;Stein et al, 2016Stein et al, , 2018.…”

Section: Episodic Future Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Effects of content and valence of episodic future thinking on delay discounting and alcohol demand.

Chang¹,

Ladd²

2023

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

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Objective: This study examined whether the content (alcohol vs. nonalcohol) and valence (positive vs. negative) of episodic future thinking (EFT) are associated with delay discounting (DD) and alcohol demand. Method: Participants (N = 360) were college students (M age = 21.64 years, 84.44% female, 76.11% White) reporting alcohol consumption in the past month recruited to participate in an online, cross-sectional study. Participants were randomly assigned to a control condition or one of four EFT cuegeneration conditions (positive alcohol, negative alcohol, positive nonalcohol, and negative nonalcohol). Then participants in EFT conditions generated EFT cues based on the assigned condition. Afterward, all participants completed the DD task and alcohol purchase task; participants in the EFT conditions completed modified tasks during which their EFT cues were displayed. Finally, participants completed a self-report battery assessing alcohol consumption, alcohol-related problems, and demographics. Results: Participants assigned to nonalcohol EFT conditions discounted future rewards significantly less than those in alcohol EFT conditions, F(1, 266) = 6.87, p = .009, η 2 p = .025. However, there was no main effect of EFT valence on DD. EFT content around professional work, but not social relationships, was associated with less steep DD (β = −.24, p < .001). No effect of EFT on alcohol demand intensity was found. Conclusions: EFT effect on DD may lie in content rather than valence, in which alcohol-free EFT, whether positive or negative, was associated with preference for later but larger rewards. Incorporating a professional goal into imagined events might play a key role in EFT effects on promoting the valuation of future consequences. Public Health Significance StatementThis study indicates that imagining an alcohol-free future event, especially related to academic work, was associated with higher valuations of future consequences among college students who drink. Therefore, substance-free episodic future thinking may hold promise as a potential prevention or early intervention tool, particularly in opportunistic contexts where individuals may not want or be ready to directly think about their alcohol use.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 99%

Section: Episodic Future Thinkingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of content and valence of episodic future thinking on delay discounting and alcohol demand.

Chang¹,

Ladd²

2023

Psychology of Addictive Behaviors

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“…If there had been enough evidence that the rate of devaluation of future outcomes can be viewed as a mechanism of important behaviors from the perspective of general guidelines or policy, it might be valuable to affect the rate of delay discounting; therefore, a possible cause of impulsive behavior. Another promising way to affect impulsivity is through episodic future thinking (EFT) ( 56 , 57 ). It has recently been demonstrated that EFT promotes not only far-sighted decisions, but it also increases intentions to engage in preventive behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic ( 58 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delay discounting of money and health outcomes, and adherence to policy guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic

Krawiec

Mizak

Tagliabue

et al. 2022

Front. Public Health

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Delay discounting refers to the observation that the subjective value of an outcome decreases as the delay to its receipt increases. It is well-established that steep delay discounting is related to various maladaptive behaviors, including poorer health-related choices. One of the current challenges of public health policies that emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic is to encourage preventive behaviors against infectious diseases. In this study, we aimed to explore possible underpinnings of adherence to COVID-19 related public health policy guidelines such as disinfection, distancing, and masks (DDM). Participants completed monetary and health discounting tasks across two outcome amounts in gain and loss conditions, and they provided self-report measures of adherence to the DDM policy. Contrary to the theoretically plausible prediction that higher discounting rates would be negatively associated with adherence to health-related public policy guidelines, we found no compelling evidence to support such statement. We discuss the potential weaknesses of declarative measurements of attitudes toward COVID-19 and consider using behavioral interventions for influencing discounting rates for complementing and enhancing current policy guidelines.

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“…One especially promising intervention of this kind is episodic future thinking, in which a person imagines future autobiographical events [31]. Laboratory studies have shown that episodic future thinking can decrease discounting of delayed rewards [32,33]. Although the evidence demonstrating that episodic future thinking can produce lasting change in health behavior is limited, small early studies show promising results in the domains of medication adherence [24] and smoking cessation [34].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Delay Discounting, Probability Discounting, and Interdental Cleaning Frequency

DeFulio

Rzeszutek

2022

Preprint

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Background: Interdental cleaning is recommended by dentists but many people do not floss regularly. The health benefits of interdental cleaning are delayed, and sensitivity to delay is an important factor in many health behaviors. Thus, the present studies explore the relationship between frequency of flossing, and sensitivity to delayed and probabilistic outcomes. Method: Crowd-sourced participants were recruited in two studies (n = 584 and n = 321, respectively). In both studies, participants reported their frequency of flossing and completed delay discounting and probability discounting tasks. Discounting was measured with Area Under the Curve, and linear regression was used to analyze the results. Results: Findings show that higher levels of delay discounting were associated with less frequent flossing (p < .001, both studies). In contrast, probability discounting was not significantly associated with flossing frequency (ns, both studies). Conclusion: The findings are consistent with prior studies involving other health behaviors such as attendance at primary care and medication adherence. Results suggest that interventions that reduce delay discounting may help promote regular interdental cleaning, and that delay discounting is a more robust predictor of health behaviors than probability discounting. In addition, interdental cleaning appears to be a reasonable target behavior for evaluating potentially generalizable behavioral health interventions. Thus, interventions that are successful in promoting oral health behaviors should be considered as candidates for evaluation in other health behavior domains.

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A meta-analysis of the effects of episodic future thinking on delay discounting

Cited by 32 publications

References 97 publications

Effects of content and valence of episodic future thinking on delay discounting and alcohol demand.

Effects of content and valence of episodic future thinking on delay discounting and alcohol demand.

Delay discounting of money and health outcomes, and adherence to policy guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic

Delay Discounting, Probability Discounting, and Interdental Cleaning Frequency

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