Doctoral Dissertation Research in DRMS: Discounting Future Losses

许多重要的问题--包括储蓄不足、不健康的行为和环境资源的枯竭--都涉及到眼前和未来成本与收益之间的短视权衡。一般来说，人们会对未来的结果大打折扣，导致他们现在想要好的东西，把坏的事情推迟到以后。神经经济学的最新进展揭示了人们对未来回报的贴现过程，但人们对未来损失的评估却知之甚少，尽管行为证据表明存在很大差异。拟议的研究将调查如何以及为什么损失与收益不同。 研究参与者将在当前和未来的收益和损失之间做出真实的选择。与此同时，他们的决策过程将与行为方法，包括思想清单，和神经学方法，包括功能性磁共振成像（fMRI）探索。因此，该项目将调查损失贴现的原因，情绪和大脑区域。通过发现损失贴现与收益贴现的根本不同，拟议的研究将为心理学，经济学，神经科学和相关领域的贴现提供科学思考。它的应用应改善跨期决策的损失，有利于个人和社会。此外，该项目将支持心理学和神经经济学的高级研究生培训，为未来的研究人员提供尖端方法

Many important problems -- including insufficient savings, unhealthy behavior, and depletion of environmental resources -- involve short-sighted tradeoffs between immediate and future costs and benefits. In general, people sharply discount future outcomes, leading them to want good things now and put bad things off until later. Recent advances in neuroeconomics have revealed the processes by which people discount future rewards, yet little is known about how people evaluate future losses, in spite of behavior evidence suggesting large differences. The proposed research will investigate how and why losses are discounted differently from gains. Study research participants will make real choices between immediate and future gains and losses of varying amounts and delays. Meanwhile, their decision processes will be explored with behavioral methods, including thought listings, and neurological methods, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Thus, the project will investigate the reasons, emotions, and brain areas underlying discounting of losses. By discovering the ways in which discounting of losses is fundamentally different from discounting of gains, the proposed research will inform scientific thinking about discounting in psychology, economics, neuroscience, and related fields. Its applications should improve intertemporal decision making about losses, benefiting both individuals and society. Furthermore, this project will support advanced graduate training in psychology and neuroeconomics, preparing future researchers with cutting edge methods