Delay Discounting of Different Commodities Varies as a Function of Political Party Affiliation in a College Sample

Abstract

Delay discounting has been used as a measure of both self control and of value for a particular commodity. Two hundred sixty five college psychology students who self identified as being either a Democrat or a Republican completed a delaydiscounting task involving five different commodities (two monetary values, retirement income, Federal legislation, and medical treatment). Analyzing the area under the discounting curve, results showed that Democrats discounted all commodities to a greater extent than did Republicans. These results may suggest that Democrats are more apt than Republicans to prefer immediate results or that they value these commodities to a lesser degree than Republicans. Members of both parties, however, displayed similar changes in discounting across commodities, indicating a similar pattern of relative values. KEYWORDS: Democrats, Republicans, delay discounting, college students Within behavioral psychology, self control refers to choosing a larger amount of some positive outcome that will be available in the future rather than accepting a lesser amount of that outcome that is available more immediately (e.g., see Logue, 1995, for a review).2 Determining when an individual will switch from waiting for the larger outcome to preferring a smaller, but more immediate outcome has developed into a large literature on the topic of delay discounting (see Madden & Bickel, 2010, for a recent review). Interest in self control (and delay discounting) has grown over the decades for several reasons. For one, research suggests that children's ability to display this behavior is predictive of positive life outcomes (Mischel, Shoda, & Rodriquez, 1989). Next, how 1 The author thanks Heather K. Terrell for her assistance in data collection and Adam Derenne for his assistance with data analysis. Correspondence pertaining to this paper can be addressed to Jeffrey N. Weatherly, Department of Psychology, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND 58202-8380 (Email: jeffrey.weatherly@und.edu). 2 Likewise, for aversive events, self control would be defined as choosing a smaller, more immediate unpleasant consequence rather than waiting for a more delayed, but larger, unpleasant consequence.

Choose your words Wisely: Delay Discounting of Differently titled Social Policy Issues

“…As noted above, previous research (Weatherly, 2010) has demonstrated differences in levels of discounting as a function of political party affiliation. In that study, however, Democrats displayed significantly more discounting than Republicans.…”

“…Phrased differently, they should be more likely than those with conservative ideologies to support legislation that delivers delayed benefits to society. One the other hand, Weatherly (2010) reported finding that university students who self-identified as Democrats displayed significantly more, rather than less, discounting of four different outcomes than did self-identified Republicans. Likewise, research has demonstrated that discounting of different outcomes sometimes varies as a function of aspects of the participants' religiousness (Weatherly & Plumm, in press;Weatherly & Terrell, 2011).…”

The Effects of Time Framing on Compliance to Hypothetical Social-Distancing Policies Related to COVID-19

“…On the one hand, previous research has found that individuals with self-reported liberal ideologies demonstrate shallower discounting for delayed outcomes (Hardisty et al, 2010 ; Rattner, Yagil, & Shermn-Segal, 2003 ). On the other hand, Weatherly ( 2010 ) reported that individuals with self-reported liberal ideologies demonstrated steeper discounting. In light of the current study’s findings and the unreliable findings in previous research, future studies should investigate the conditions under which political affiliation affects measures of delay discounting.…”