![]() ![]() For example, larger outcomes are discounted less steeply than are smaller outcomes (the magnitude effect Green, Myerson, & McFadden, 1997) financial gains are discounted less steeply than losses (the sign effect Baker, Johnson, & Bickel, 2003) and, of the most direct relevance to the present study, different outcomes are discounted at different rates (the commodity effect Charlton & Fantino, 2008). ![]() In addition to the influence of individual differences, the degree to which delay affects the value of future outcomes (i.e., the discount rate) varies as a function of contextual variables. Temporal discounting has been shown to correlate with real-world contexts such as substance dependence (Ainslie, 2001 Bickel & Johnson, 2003 Bickel & Marsch, 2001), impulse control (Critchfield & Kollins, 2001 Petry, 2001a Raineri & Rachlin, 1993), pathological gambling (Dixon, Marley, & Jacobs, 2003 Petry, 2001b), and risky choice behavior (O’Donoghue & Rabin, 2001). Temporal (or delay) discounting is a process that describes the decrease in the reinforcing value of an outcome as a function of the delay until its receipt/occurrence (Critchfield & Kollins, 2001). Similar to previous findings for nonsocial outcomes, the hyperbolic-shaped models provide a fit to the data superior to that of the exponential model. The results from the present study suggest that, for 93 participants, the same equations (exponential, hyperbolic, and hyperboloid) used to describe the discounting of nonsocial commodities also describe the relation between delay and the value of social interaction. For the present study, we used standard binary-choice discounting procedures to explore the function that most accurately describes the change in value of delayed social interactions. Despite the broad list of outcomes that are hyperbolically discounted, one class of outcomes has only recently received attention: social interactions. ![]() Furthermore, this hyperbolic shape has important theoretical implications. The hyperbolic-shaped function not only describes the shape of discounting for monetary outcomes, but also for other tangibles, such as alcohol, candy, CDs, erotica, cigarettes, cocaine, books, and DVDs. The temporal discounting literature has demonstrated that the loss in value for delayed outcomes is most accurately modeled using a hyperbolic discounting equation.
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