Behavioral and neural correlates of increased self-control in the absence of increased willpower

Abstract

People often exert willpower to choose a more valuable delayed reward over a less valuable immediate reward, but using willpower is taxing and frequently fails. In this research, we demonstrate the ability to enhance self-control (i.e., forgoing smaller immediate rewards in favor of larger delayed rewards) without exerting additional willpower. Using behavioral and neuroimaging data, we show that a reframing of rewards (i) reduced the subjective value of smaller immediate rewards relative to larger delayed rewards, (ii) increased the likelihood of choosing the larger delayed rewards when choosing between two real monetary rewards, (iii) reduced the brain reward responses to immediate rewards in the dorsal and ventral striatum, and (iv) reduced brain activity in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (a correlate of willpower) when participants chose the same larger later rewards across the two choice frames. We conclude that reframing can promote self-control while avoiding the need for additional willpower expenditure.temporal discounting | judgment and decision-making | neuroeconomics | reward reframing

The Value of Nothing: Asymmetric Attention to Opportunity Costs Drives Intertemporal Decision Making

“…Magen et al (2008) found that patience was increased by the Explicit zero frame-a phenomenon they called the Hidden zero effect. Similar results were earlier reported by Loewenstein andPrelec (1991, 1993), and later replicated by Radu et al (2011), Wu and He (2012), Read and Scholten (2012), and Magen et al (2014).…”

“…Similarly, almost all previous studies of the Hidden zero effect have used stylized choices of this sort (Magen et al 2008(Magen et al , 2014Radu et al 2011;Read and Scholten 2012;Wu and He 2012). The only exception of which we are aware is the single study by Loewenstein and Prelec (1993) in which participants chose between dining options.…”

“…With the exception of Loewenstein and Prelec (1993), all previous studies (including those reported above) that demonstrated the effect(s) of making intertemporal opportunity costs explicit via a subtle framing manipulation (Magen et al 2008(Magen et al , 2014Radu et al 2011;Read and Scholten 2012;Wu and He 2012) did so by reminding people that they would receive a "0" payoff now (if they chose LL) or later (if they chose SS). Therefore, one might be concerned that these effects are due specifically to the presence of the number zero.…”

Grit in patients with substance use disorders

“…Although no interventions to increase grit in a clinical sample have been published, the technique of Duckworth and colleagues 8 to teach young students to identify plans to overcome obstacles in goal pursuit has been shown to moderately increase school attendance and academic performance. Furthermore, interventions to improve other self-regulation traits, including delay discounting 41 , self-control capacity 42 and distress tolerance 43 , have previously been efficacious. Whether grit can similarly be increased in patients with substance use disorders and whether increasing grit could improve treatment outcomes are promising areas for future research.…”

Dissociable Contributions of Imagination and Willpower to the Malleability of Human Patience

“…Although the existence of such effects points to the possibility of intervening on choices to promote patient behavior, the feasibility of intervention is limited by the absence of a unifying explanation of the underlying mechanisms. In recent decades, a variety of explanations have been proposed for these effects, including shifting one’s reference points (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979; Loewenstein, 1988) or temporal focus (Lebreton et al, 2013; Lin, Horner, Bisby, & Burgess, 2015) or changing how outcomes are valued (Magen, Kim, Dweck, Gross, & Mcclure, 2014). However, the basic cognitive processes that give rise to these changes have remained elusive (Lempert & Phelps, 2016).…”