ArticleFrontiers in psychology2017
Episodic Future Thinking about the Ideal Self Induces Lower Discounting, Leading to a Decreased Tendency toward Cheating.
Article in Frontiers in psychology, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Behavioral trainings and manipulations to reduce delay discounting: A systematic review.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2019Pooled it
- A web-based episodic specificity and future thinking session modulates delay discounting in cannabis users.Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2020Trial
- A fragile effect: The influence of episodic memory on delay discounting.Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006) · 2025Article
- Landscape exposure and exercising for health: exposure to natural versus urban landscapes promotes walking for health.Australian journal of psychology · 2025Article
- Health Prompts Affect Consideration of Health but Not Intertemporal Preferences While Promoting Healthier Food Choices.Nutrients · 2024Article
- Patients with cocaine use disorder exhibit reductions in delay discounting with episodic future thinking cues regardless of incarceration history.Addictive behaviors reports · 2023Article
- Factors associated with food choice among long-term weight loss maintainers.Journal of human nutrition and dietetics : the official journal of the British Dietetic Association · 2022Article
- Effects of individual and dyadic decision-making and normative reference on delay discounting decisions.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2022Article
- Putting prospection into practice: Methodological considerations in the use of episodic future thinking to reduce delay discounting and maladaptive health behaviors.Frontiers in public health · 2022Review
- Evaluating effects of episodic future thinking on valuation of delayed reward in cocaine use disorder: a pilot study.The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse · 2021Article
- Imagining the Future: Future Imagination Training Decreases Delay Discounting Among Internet Addicts and Non-Problematic Users.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Can episodic future thinking affect food choices?Journal of economic behavior & organization · 2020Article
- Commentary: Episodic Future Thinking about the Ideal Self Induces Lower Discounting, Leading to a Decreased Tendency toward Cheating.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
- Imagining Events Alternative to the Present Can Attenuate Delay Discounting.Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2019Article
- Creative Persuasion: A Study on Adversarial Behaviors and Strategies in Phishing Attacks.Frontiers in psychology · 2018Article
- Construing Morality at High versus Low Levels Induces Better Self-control, Leading to Moral Acts.Frontiers in psychology · 2017Article
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3 authors.
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No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Delay discounting refers to a pervasive tendency toward preferring smaller immediate gains over larger future gains. Recent empirical research has shown that episodic future thinking (EFT; i.e., projecting oneself into the future to pre-experience forthcoming events) can reduce the tendency toward discounting. A common tenet of psychological theories of crime is that delinquency results from focusing on short-term gains while failing to consider adequately the longer-term consequences of delinquent behavior. We investigated whether an EFT intervention involving the ideal self could induce lower discounting rates and, as a consequence, reduced delinquency. The results showed that, compared with control participants, participants engaging in EFT, that is, envisaging life events that would be experienced by their ideal selves, exhibited a lower discounting rate in a monetary choice task (Experiments 1 and 2), as well as a decreased tendency to make delinquent choices in imaginary scenarios (Experiment 1) and cheat in a matrix task (Experiment 2). The discounting tendency mediated the relationship between engaging in EFT pertaining to the ideal self and the tendency toward morally questionable behavior (Experiments 1 and 2). The findings of the two experiments indicate that engagement in EFT with a focus on the ideal self is sufficient to induce lower discounting rates, by promoting consideration of distant costs and thus increasing resistance to delinquent involvement and cheating (given the temptation of the immediate benefits that may accrue from such behavior). The current research constitutes an innovative approach to delinquency prevention and the promotion of morality.
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