The Effect of Pregnancy on Intertemporal Choice and Its Mechanism

Abstract

Pregnancy has been considered a special period with cognitive defect and unstable emotion. However, physiological and psychological changes jointly reshape the brain of pregnant women, which makes them more patient and prefer future outcomes. Specifically, they become more future-orientated, self-controlled and more positive to the future. These phenomena can be accounted for evolution perspective and construal level theory. Furthermore, we recommend that future researches pay attention to the effect of pregnancy on intertemporal choice in different domains and the relevant influence of expectant fathers on delay discounting.