NOMIS researcher Tom Griffiths and colleagues have pinpointed a link between the psychological concept of delayed gratification with the choice to socially distance during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that stress is related to increased impulsivity and that less stressed and more patient individuals socially distanced more throughout the pandemic. Their findings were published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most consequential global events in recent history. Containing the virus required mass coordination of human behavior, and thus psychological research of choice mechanisms can help inform policymakers to develop effective response strategies in the future. The paper develops a link between the psychological concept of delayed gratification with the choice to socially distance, finding that stress is related to increased impulsivity and that less stressed and more patient individuals socially distanced more throughout the pandemic.
Abstract
Delayed gratification is an important focus of research, given its potential relationship to forms of behavior, such as savings, susceptibility to addiction, and pro-social behaviors. The COVID-19 pandemic may be one of the most consequential recent examples of this phenomenon, with people’s willingness to delay gratification affecting their willingness to socially distance themselves. COVID-19 also provides a naturalistic context by which to evaluate the ecological validity of delayed gratification. This article outlines four large-scale online experiments (total N = 12, 906) where we ask participants to perform Money Earlier or Later (MEL) decisions (e.g., $5 today vs. $10 tomorrow) and to also report stress measures and pandemic mitigation behaviors. We found that stress increases impulsivity and that less stressed and more patient individuals socially distanced more throughout the pandemic. These results help resolve longstanding theoretical debates in the MEL literature as well as provide policymakers with scientific evidence that can help inform response strategies in the future.
Read the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General publication: Stress, intertemporal choice, and mitigation behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic
