Socio-Emotional Status, Education, and Time-Discounting in Japanese Non-Smoking Population: A Multi-Generational Study

Abstract

Recent studies in behavioral economics and neuroeconomics have revealed that emotion affects impulsivity in intertemporal choice. We examined the roles of socio-emotional status (i.e., perceived stress, depression, quality of sleep, loneliness) in temporal discounting behavior by Japanese non-smokers in a generation-specific manner (20 -70 s) with a relatively large sample size (N = 3450). We observed that 1) both men and women are the most impulsive in their 60 s; 2) education has a negative impact on impulsivity in men aged 40 -49 and women aged 50 -59; 3) perceived stress has a negative impact on impulsivity in men aged 60 -69; and 4) sleeplessness has negative and positive impacts on impulsivity in men aged 40 -49 and women aged 30 -39, respectively. Biological and social factors underlying observed findings are discussed.

The Effects of Social Status and Culture on Delay Discounting

“…Third, the present study did not consider the potential effects of other endogenous variables, such as positive and negative affect, in delay discounting. Given the previous finding that negative affect leads to less steep discounting (Yamane, Takahashi, Kamesaka, Tsutsui, & Ohtake, 2013), the cultural difference in delay discounting might be caused by an individual's subjective feelings, which the present study did not examine. Fourth, given a suggestion that biases in time perception influence impulsivity in delay discounting (Takahashi, 2005), the current findings might partially result from cultural differences in time perception, which were not considered in the present study.…”