ArticleScientific reports2021
Delay discounting and under-valuing of recent information predict poorer adherence to social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Article in Scientific reports, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Role of Time Preferences in Compliance With COVID-19 Preventive Behaviors in Iran: A Quasi-hyperbolic Discounting Approach.Journal of preventive medicine and public health = Yebang Uihakhoe chi · 2025Article
- Mental health and socio-cognitive predictors of adherence to COVID-19 social distancing rules in adolescents in England.Heliyon · 2025Article
- Assessing the relationship between delay discounting and decisions to engage in various protective behaviors during COVID-19.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2024Article
- Can delay discounting predict vaccine hesitancy 4-years later? A study among US young adults.Preventive medicine reports · 2023Article
- A mini-review on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected intertemporal choice.Psychoradiology · 2023Review
- Delay discounting, probability discounting, and interdental cleaning frequency.BMC oral health · 2022Article
- Individuals with adverse childhood experiences explore less and underweight reward feedback.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Delay discounting of money and health outcomes, and adherence to policy guidelines during the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Effects of Individual Discount Rate and Uncertainty Perception on Compliance with Containment Measures during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Brain sciences · 2021Article
- Sharing data to better understand one of the world's most significant shared experiences: data resource profile of the longitudinal COVID-19 psychological research consortium (C19PRC) study.International journal of population data science · 2020Article
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18 authors.
Funding
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented global changes in individual and collective behaviour. To reduce the spread of the virus, public health bodies have promoted social distancing measures while attempting to mitigate their mental health consequences. The current study aimed to identify cognitive predictors of social distancing adherence and mental health symptoms, using computational models derived from delay discounting (the preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards) and patch foraging (the ability to trade-off between exploiting a known resource and exploring an unknown one). In a representative sample of the UK population (N = 442), we find that steeper delay discounting predicted poorer adherence to social distancing measures and greater sensitivity to reward magnitude during delay discounting predicted higher levels of anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, under-valuing recently sampled information during foraging independently predicted greater violation of lockdown guidance. Our results suggest that those who show greater discounting of delayed rewards struggle to maintain social distancing. Further, those who adapt faster to new information are better equipped to change their behaviour in response to public health measures. These findings can inform interventions that seek to increase compliance with social distancing measures whilst minimising negative repercussions for mental health.
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