Priming the ant or the grasshopper in people’s mind….

Priming the ant or the grasshopper in people’s mind:

How regulatory mode affects inter-temporal choices

• Lucia Mannetti*, Susanne Leder**, Libera Insalata*, Antonio Pierro*, Tory Higgins***, Arie Kruglanski****

• * University of Rome, La Sapienza, Italy• ** Zeppelin University, Friedrichshafen, Germany• *** Columbia University, New York, USA• **** University of Maryland, College Park, USA

Priming the ant or the grasshopper in people’s mind….

• In every-day life people have to decide whether – to get an immediate pleasure (e.g. tasting an

ice-cream = luxuriating during summer, like the grasshopper)

or– to renounce to it in order to get the delayed

benefits (decreased body weight = storing food for next winter, like the patient ant)

Priming the ant or the grasshopper in people’s mind

• Psychologists talk of:– delay of gratification (e.g. Mischel, Ayduck,

Mendoza-Denton, 2003) – self-control and will-power (e.g. Baumeister,

Vohs, 2003),

• Economists of:– temporal discounting– constant discount rate


• Neuro-economy (McClure, et al. 2004): when making inter-temporal choices two neural systems are competing: – the limbic (i.e., affective) system (lower,

automatic); – the lateral prefrontal cortex and associated

structures that are typically viewed as more cognitive regions (recently evolved)


• Which factors will increase the strength of the two different systems?– Previous studies : cognitive load, drug and

alcohol consumption, sexual arousal reduce strength of cognitive s. (Ariely, Lowenstein, 2003)

• we hypothesize the influence of two regulatory mode orientations, namely locomotion and assessment (Higgins, et al. 2003; Kruglanski, et al. 2000).


• the aspect of self-regulation concerned with – movement from state to state– committing the psychological

resources that will initiate and maintain goal-related movement

LOCOMOTION


• The aspect of self-regulation concerned with:

– critically evaluation in order to judge relative quality

– determination of value or importance of something

– critical appraisal as a guide for action.

ASSESSMENT


• According to Camerer, et al.(2005) assessment is like controlled processes and locomotion is like automatic processes.

• locomotion and assessment can be made more salient by situational factors


• Therefore, we hypothesized: – if locomotion > assessment = more

impulsive choices – if assessment > locomotion = more far-

sighted choices• We experimentally induced either a

locomotion orientation or an assessment


• Method • 40 students (20 females and 20 males) from

University of Rome La Sapienza participated in the study on voluntary bases (mean age = 24 years)

• 2 experimental phases presented to participants as involving two independent studies. – 1st intended to manipulate regulatory modes, following

Avnet and Higgins’ (2002)procedure– 2nd: inter-temporal choice task


• In the locomotion condition, participants were asked to “think of a day when: – they had made many different things,– they had finished one project and did not

wait long before starting a new one, – they had decided to do something and could

not wait to get started”.


• In the assessment condition, they were asked to “think of a day when:– they had compared themselves with other

people,– they had thought about their positive and

negative characteristics,– they had critiqued work done by others or

themselves”.


• Choice tasks: 2 alternatives presented on a screen, (earlier reward always on the left)

5 €oggi

7,50 €fra 2 settimane

Responses made by pressing one of two buttons corresponding to the location of the options


• Participants informed that they would receive money corresponding to one of their choices (randomly selected)

• Participants were allowed as much time to respond as desired

• The task took about 20 minutes


• First, 2 questions to get acclimatized to the task.

• Then, in random order, all the 48 choice pairs generated by combining: – the amount of the early reward – the delay to the later reward – the percent increase of later reward


• Amount early reward (AER): 5 or 40 Euros

• Delay of later reward (DLR): 2 or 4 or 6 weeks

• Percent increase of later reward (PILR): 1%, or 3%, or 5%, or 10%, or 15%, or 25%, or 35%, or 50%.

• Choices coded “0” when early reward, and “1” when delayed reward


• 2 (Regulatory mode) x 2 (AER) x 3 (DLR) x 8 (PILR) Anova with the last 3 factors as repeated measures.

• significant between-subjects effect of regulatory mode (F1,38 = 6,553, p <.01; ηp2 = .15):

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3

AssessmentLocomotion


• within-subject main effects of:– AER (F1,38 = 62,742, p <.0001, ηp2 = .62)– DLR (F2,76 = 43,454, p <.001, ηp2 = .53)

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3

0,35

amount early reward

5 Euros40 Euros

0

0,05

0,1

0,15

0,2

0,25

0,3

weeks of delay

2 weks4 weeks6 weeks


• PILR (F7,266 = 58,627, p <.0001, ηp2 = .61).

00,050,1

0,150,2

0,250,3

0,350,4

0,450,5

Increase of delayed reward

1% 3%5% 10%15% 25%35% 50%

Choices of later reward


• Regulatory mode by AER by PILR interaction (F7,266 = 2,379 p <.02, ηp2 = .06).

5 Euros

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1% 3% 5% 10% 15% 25% 35% 50%% increase later reward

late

r cho

ices

LocomotionAssessment

40 Euros

0

0,2

0,4

0,6

0,8

1% 3% 5% 10% 15% 25% 35% 50%

% increase later reward

late

r cho

ices

LocomotionAssessment


Results of this study:– confirm previous findings – show that people may be more or

less far-sighted as a function of the experimentally induced regulatory mode

– In other words regulatory mode is one of the factors that can explain “intra-individual” variability in impatience (Camerer, et al., 2005).

Thanks …

Priming the ant or the grasshopper in people’s mind….

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