Delay Discounting as an Index of Sustainable Behavior: Devaluation of Future Air Quality and Implications for Public Health

Abstract

Poor air quality and resulting annual deaths represent significant public health concerns. Recently, rapid delay discounting (the devaluation of future outcomes) of air quality has been considered a potential barrier for engaging in long term, sustainable behaviors that might help to reduce emissions (e.g., reducing private car use, societal support for clean air initiatives). Delay discounting has been shown to be predictive of real world behavior outside of laboratory settings, and therefore may offer an important framework beyond traditional variables thought to measure sustainable behavior such as importance of an environmental issue, or environmental attitudes/values, although more research is needed in this area. We examined relations between discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary gains and losses. We also examined, relations between discounting and self-reported importance of air quality and respiratory health, and nature relatedness. Results showed rapid delay discounting of all outcomes across the time frames assessed, and significant positive correlations between delay discounting of air quality, respiratory health, and monetary outcomes. Steeper discounting of monetary outcomes relative to air quality and respiratory health outcomes was observed in the context of gains; however, no differences in discounting were observed across losses of monetary, air quality, and respiratory health. Replicating the sign effect, monetary outcomes were discounted more steeply than monetary losses. Importance of air quality, respiratory health and nature relatedness were significantly and positively correlated with one another, but not with degree of delay discounting of any outcome, demonstrating the need for more comprehensive measures that predict pro-environmental behaviors that might benefit individuals and public health over time. These results add to our understanding of decision-making, and demonstrate alarming rates of delay discounting of air quality and health. These results implicate a major public health concern and potential barriers to individual and societal behavior that reduce pollution and emissions for conservation of clean air.

Visual Exposure to Natural Environments Decreases Delay Discounting of Improved Air Quality

“…This research combined with previous studies suggests that beyond frequent findings of increased happiness [e.g., (40)], improved attention [e.g., (32)], and reduced stress [e.g., (41)], exposure to natural as opposed to built environments also influences decision-making in the context of delay discounting, an important predictor of real world behavior [see also (47); for an example of increased cooperation with exposure to nature]. Reductions in delay discounting of air quality in real world situations will be necessary to address the effects of current and future emissions for our health and the health of our ecosystems (48). Importantly, exposure to natural as opposed to built environments may facilitate a beneficial and reciprocal interaction between humans and our ecosystems, with focus toward maximizing future ecosystem health, and therefore human health.…”

Hyperbolic Discounting with Environmental Outcomes across Time, Space, and Probability

“…Research on the discounting of environmental outcomes over longer time periods has not tended to use delays longer than 10 years (e.g., Meyer, 2013;Viscusi, Huber, & Bell, 2008a), although some researchers have used delays of up to 25 years (e.g., . Berry, Nickerson, and Odum (2017) stated that there is almost no research that uses the time-frames that environmental policies are designed for. Berry, Nickerson et al's own research on the discounting of air quality included a delay of 75 years, but more discounting research with long time frames is needed, especially considering that "the role of time is especially salient for environmental decisions, which have consequences that unfold over decades, centuries, or millennia" (Hardisty et al, 2012, p. 684).…”

“…Slightly more complex, two-parameter hyperbola-like functions, referred to elsewhere as hyperboloid functions (e.g., Berry, Nickerson, & Odum, 2017;Young, 2017), where an exponent, s, is added to the denominator, have also been described in relation to discounting data (Green & Myerson, 2004;Myerson & Green, 1995;Rachlin, 2006). In Myerson and Green's (1995) model:…”

“…3 and 4) have been shown to fit the discounting of monetary outcomes better than the simple hyperbolic and exponential models (McKerchar et al, 2009;McKerchar, Green & Myerson, 2010), researchers have not, as yet, fully explored which function provides the best fit to the discounting of environmental outcomes. Evidence has been presented to support the exponential (e.g., Hannon, 1994), the hyperbolic (e.g., Kaplan et al, 2014;Viscusi, Huber, & Bell, 2008b), and hyperboloid functions (e.g., Berry, Friedel, et al, 2017;Berry, Nickerson, & Odum, 2017;McKerchar, Kaplan, Reed, Suggs, & Franck, 2019) for the discounting of environmental outcomes, but model fit comparisons in relation to environmental outcomes are rare. Research exploring best-fitting model functions to the data of individuals in environmental discounting tasks is even scarcer.…”

Promoting Healthy Decision-Making via Natural Environment Exposure: Initial Evidence and Future Directions

“…Within-subject analyses revealed that individuals who discounted gains steeply (“impulsively”) in one realm (e.g., monetary) also discounted gains steeply (“impulsively”) in other realms (e.g., air quality, health) and vice versa (see also Meyer, 2013 ; Johnson and Saunders, 2014 ; Kaplan et al, 2014 ; Richards and Green, 2015 for examples of environmental commodity discounting/support for long-term conservation goals). Extending this line of work Berry et al (2017a , b) showed that mechanisms similar to those driving decisions for monetary outcomes might also be driving decisions about air quality (and possibly other ecological outcomes). This line of research lends support to targeting the same underlying mechanisms to facilitate reduction of delay discounting (“impulsivity”) on a global scale (see Odum, 2011 ).…”