A Self-Control Choice Paradigm Including Loss of Rewards: Effects of Amount of Experience of Larger-Later Outcomes and Social Comparison Information1

Abstract

This study investigated whether factors that have been shown to affect self-control choice in prior studies can also influence human self-control choice in the “smaller-sooner loss/larger-later gain–smaller-sooner gain/larger-later loss (Sl/Lg–Sg/Ll) paradigm”. Two experiments were conducted among Japanese undergraduate students to examine the effects of the length of delay and amount of experience of larger-later gains and losses (Experiment 1) and social comparison information (Experiment 2) on self-control choice. Self-control choice became more frequent as the amount of experience of larger-later gains and losses increased and became more frequent with social comparison information. These results suggest that the amount of experience of larger-later outcomes and availability of social comparison information promote self-control choice.