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——都涉及在当前和未来的成本和收益之间进行短视的权衡。一般来说，人们对未来的结果严重低估，导致他们现在想要好的东西，把坏的东西推迟到以后。神经经济学的最新进展揭示了人们对未来奖励的贴现过程，然而人们对如何评估未来损失知之甚少，尽管行为证据表明存在巨大差异。拟议中的研究将调查损失和收益的贴现方式以及原因。研究参与者将在眼前和未来的收益以及不同数量和延迟的损失之间做出真正的选择。同时，他们的决策过程将探索行为方法，包括思想清单，和神经学方法，包括功能磁共振成像（fMRI）。因此，该项目将调查原因、情绪和潜在的损失贴现脑区域。通过发现损失折现与收益折现的根本不同之处，本研究将为心理学、经济学、神经科学及相关领域的折现提供科学思路。它的应用将改善关于损失的跨期决策，对个人和社会都有利。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的方法

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