No effects of acute stress on monetary delay discounting

Autor(en)

Paul Forbes, Jonas Nitschke, Nicole Hochmeister, Tobias Kalenscher, Claus Lamm

Abstrakt

Many everyday decisions, including those concerning our health, finances and the environment, involve choosing between a smaller but imminent reward (e.g., €20 now) and a later but larger reward (e.g., €40 in a month). The extent to which an individual prefers smaller imminent rewards over larger delayed rewards can be measured using delay discounting tasks. Acute stress induces a cascade of biological and psychological responses with potential consequences for how individuals think about the future, process rewards, and make decisions, all of which can impact delay discounting. Several studies have shown that individuals focus more on imminent rewards under stress. These findings have been used to explain why individuals make detrimental choices under acute stress. Yet, the evidence linking acute stress to delay discounting is equivocal. To address this uncertainty, we conducted a meta-analysis of 11 studies (14 effects) to systematically quantify the effects of acute stress on monetary delay discounting. Overall, we find no effect of acute stress on delay discounting, compared to control conditions (SMD = −0.18, 95% CI [-0.57, 0.20], p = 0.32). We also find that neither the gender/sex of the participants, the type of stressor (e.g., physical vs. psychosocial) nor whether monetary decisions were hypothetical or incentivized (i.e. monetary decisions were actually paid out) moderated the impact of acute stress on monetary delay discounting. We argue that establishing the effects of acute stress on the separate processes involved in delay discounting, such as reward valuation and prospection, will help to resolve the inconsistencies in the field.

Organisation(en)

Institut für Psychologie der Kognition, Emotion und Methoden

Externe Organisation(en)

Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

Journal

Neurobiology of Stress

Band

31

Anzahl der Seiten

11

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynstr.2024.100653

Publikationsdatum

07-2024

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

305909 Stressforschung

Schlagwörter

ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete

Endocrine and Autonomic Systems, Endocrinology, Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience, Molecular Biology, Biochemistry, Physiology

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/30c2dde4-fc31-4bd7-b3e1-cac89a77e11f