Commentary: Episodic Future Thinking about the Ideal Self Induces Lower Discounting, Leading to a Decreased Tendency toward Cheating

Frontiers in Psychology

article

Manuela Sellitto¹ 

[1] Institute of Experimental Psychology, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf

关键词: morality;    imagination;    intertemporal choice;    cheating;    delinquency;    ideal self;    episodic future thinking;    delay discounting;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01027

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

In an interesting study, Wu et al. (2017) explored a novel facet of the effect of episodic futurethinking (EFT) over delay discounting (DD) (Peters and Büchel, 2010; Benoit et al., 2011). Theyspecifically tested the idea that thinking about the ideal self would facilitate the consideration offuture consequences, and, in turn, would reduce DD and so the likelihood of making delinquentchoices. Indeed, as Wu et al. (2017) propose, delinquency could be considered in itself as anintertemporal choice between the immediate gains of delinquent behavior and the later costspotentially associated with it (e.g., bad reputation). Thinking about the ideal self was expectedto have a larger effect than both general EFT and semantic future thinking as, based on theliterature, the authors assumed it to better support goal attainment (see also Donnell et al., 2017).Across two experiments, participants in the EFT groups had to think about aspects of their idealselves (i.e., physical, social, moral, and psychological) and to pre-experience, vividly, imaginedfuture life events that would occur if the desirable aspects of their ideal selves were realized.Conversely, participants in several control conditions had/had not to generate representations ofan ideal self without engaging in mental simulation, or to re-experience present events, or to thinkabout someone else’s autobiographical details. The likelihood of engaging in delinquent acts wassubsequently measured via both hypothetical scenarios and real opportunities of cheating. Overall,the results showed that imagining and pre-experiencing life events that would be experiencedby the ideal self projected into the future reduced significantly the tendency to steeply discountfuture rewards. This, in turn, mediated a reduced willingness to engage in delinquent activities andcheating tendencies (Wu et al., 2017), suggesting that the ability to delay gratification, giving upcurrent temptations, might have an overarching effect.

【 授权许可】

CC BY