The effect of acute pain on risky and intertemporal choiceShow others and affiliations
2017 (English)In: Experimental Economics, ISSN 1386-4157, E-ISSN 1573-6938, Vol. 20, no 4, p. 878-893Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
Pain is a highly salient and attention-demanding experience that motivates people to act. We investigated the effect of pain on decision making by delivering acute thermal pain to participants’ forearm while they made risky and intertemporal choices involving money. Participants (n = 107) were more risk seeking under pain than in a no-pain control condition when decisions involved gains but not when they involved equivalent losses. Pain also resulted in greater preference for immediate (smaller) over future (larger) monetary rewards. We interpret these results as a motivation to offset the aversive, pain-induced state, where monetary rewards become more appealing under pain than under no pain and when delivered sooner rather than later. Our findings add to the long-standing debate regarding the role of intuition and reflection in decision making.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Springer, 2017. Vol. 20, no 4, p. 878-893
Keywords [en]
Pain; Decision making; Dual-process theory; Risk; Intertemporal choice
National Category
Economics Psychology (excluding Applied Psychology)
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-134392DOI: 10.1007/s10683-017-9515-6ISI: 000414374800007OAI: oai:DiVA.org:liu-134392DiVA, id: diva2:1072736
Funder
Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg FoundationRagnar Söderbergs stiftelse
Note
Funding agencies:This research was funded by the Ragnar Söderberg Foundation and Marianne and Marcus Wallenberg Foundation.
2017-02-082017-02-082017-11-20Bibliographically approved