Bleak Present, Bright Future: Online Episodic Future Thinking, Scarcity, Delay Discounting, and Food Demand

Abstract

Obesity is associated with steep discounting of the future and increased food reinforcement. Episodic future thinking (EFT), a type of prospective thinking, has been observed to reduce delay discounting (DD) and improve dietary decision making. In contrast, negative income shock (i.e., abrupt transitions to poverty) has been shown to increase discounting and may worsen dietary decision-making. Scalability of EFT training and protective effects of EFT against simulated negative income shock on DD and demand for food were assessed. In two experiments we showed online-administered EFT reliably reduced DD. Furthermore, EFT reduced DD and demand for fast foods even when challenged by negative income shock. Our findings suggest EFT is a scalable intervention that has implications for improving public health by reducing discounting of the future and demand for high energy dense food.

Think fast: rapid assessment of the effects of episodic future thinking on delay discounting in overweight/obese participants

“…To generate episodic events, participants used a self-guided generation task (Sze et al in press) similar to staff-guided tasks used in previous studies (Daniel et al 2013; O’Neill et al 2016; Stein et al 2016; Snider et al 2016). EFT participants generated personalized future events that they were looking forward to and could vividly imagine.…”

“…In laboratory-based studies, EFT robustly reduces delay discounting in overweight and obese participants (Daniel et al 2013; Sze et al in press) and produces concomitant reductions in both ad-libitum energy intake (Daniel et al 2013) and the relative reinforcing efficacy of unhealthy foods (Sze et al in press). Adapting these methods for use in natural settings has shown that EFT holds promise as a targeted weight loss treatment.…”

“…Replication of previously reported effects would facilitate broad and rapid measurement of delay discounting in the natural environment (e.g., via mobile devices). In addition to examining the 5-trial adjusting-delay task, we also sought to compare the effects of EFT employing a wide range of future events and related text cues, as is typical in the literature (e.g., Daniel et al 2013; Sze et al in press), to its effects when employing a single event and cue. If effective in reducing delay discounting, employing only one cue would further reduce time required for intervention and increase EFT’s ease of use in research and clinical settings.…”

Addiction Biomarkers: Dimensional Approaches to Understanding Addiction

“…EFT has previously been shown to decrease DD in individuals with alcholol use disorder [32], smokers [33], as well as normal weight, overweight, and obese populations [34,35]. Consistent with the reinforcer pathology concept, EFT may reduce the demand for hypothetical drinks [32], self-administration of cigarettes [33], and self-administration and valuation of highly palatable snacks in overweight and/or obese adults and children [35,36]. Conversely, when smokers or obese individuals were exposed to a scarcity scenario (drastic income reduction), they discounted more (valued the future less) and drug craving and valuation of preferred foods increased [36].…”

“…Consistent with the reinforcer pathology concept, EFT may reduce the demand for hypothetical drinks [32], self-administration of cigarettes [33], and self-administration and valuation of highly palatable snacks in overweight and/or obese adults and children [35,36]. Conversely, when smokers or obese individuals were exposed to a scarcity scenario (drastic income reduction), they discounted more (valued the future less) and drug craving and valuation of preferred foods increased [36]. One important future area of research would be to extend this model to address the ‘dark side’ of addiction, such as assessing the consequence of withdrawal.…”