If I were to stop you on the street and offer you 30 dollars right now, or 50 dollars after
six months, what would you choose?
Most of you probably chose the 30 dollars right now.
It turns out that this seemingly unimportant question, hides a deeper meaning about the
way you think and operate, and in fact can say a lot about you and your future success
in planning and realizing your goals.
What do I mean by that?
Well In the pursuit of a given goal - however
big or small, the ability to resist temptation now to get something you want later is something
that is required.
Go to bed early to feel rested in the morning; study today for more college choices next
year; work now for the vacation next summer; give up ice-cream this month so you look better
the next.
But if you’re like me, you’ll notice that, most of the time, we actually pick the immediate
smaller reward rather than the larger delayed one.
We pick up the phone and scroll through reels, the smaller immediate reward, rather than
focus on deep work or studying, we eat the cookie which provides us with instant pleasure,
rather than sticking to our diet, which will benefit us greatly in the long run.
But why is this?
Why do we make choices today that our future self would prefer not to have made, despite
knowing the same information.
Well as the human brain is good at many things, discounting the future is one of them.
When given two similar rewards, humans show a preference for one that arrives sooner rather
than later.
In an experiment, participants were given a choice to take 50 dollars, now, or 100 dollars
a year from now.
Most of the participants took the immediate 50 dollars.
In a similar study, extremely thirsty subjects were asked if they would prefer juice right
now, or 2 times the amount in 5 minutes.
60% of the subjects picked the first option and got their reward immediately.
This phenomenon is called delay discounting.
These studies show preference and inclination of the human nature towards seeking immediate
while also discounting future rewards.
To make things worse, our current way of living doesn’t help and makes the situation even
trickier.
We can see that our way of living has changed dramatically in the last 10-15 years, and
with it, so did our brains.
In a meta analysis, the relationship between delay discounting and Internet addiction was
studied.
They reviewed subjects with and without Internet addiction and measured the level of which
they discounted the future, and valued immediate rewards.
What was found is that the delay discounting rate of the Internet Addiction group was steeper
and they showed greater impulsivity.
People with IA tend to pursue immediate experiences and this could be a direct effect from the
way the internet operates.
We get instant click satisfaction 24/7, there are countless videos to watch and articles
to read, without the need to wait or think ahead for future rewards.
The Internet, unintentionally has amplified the rate at which we discount future rewards
and seek immediate ones.
It encourages us to non-planning impulsivity that prevents us from achieving potentially
greater rewards available after a longer waiting time.
If it was hard to stick to delayed rewards before, than the internet made things worse
in some regard.
But, what will happen if lets say, you possess the ability to stop discounting the future,
and really focus on the bigger delayed rewards?
Well the opposite of Delay Discounting was also discovered.
People who delay their gratification tend to perform better in life.
It was the famous “Marshmallow Experiment”.
In the study, researchers gathered a bunch of pre-schoolers, and offered them a marshmallow.
Then the researchers had to unexpectedly leave the room for 15 minutes to take care of an
“important task”, and told the kids If they didn’t eat the marshmallow by the time
they got back, they can have TWO of them.
Some of the kids didn’t resist the temptation, gave in and ate the marshmallow, others used
all of their willpower to try and resist the urge, and some covered their eyes and ears,
and devised their own games so they won’t be temped.
What they found out, is that the children who resisted and got their second marshmallow,
were better off when they got older.
For example, those who delayed longer in preschool were rated as more likely to exhibit self-control
in frustrating situations, less likely to yield to temptation, more intelligent, and
less distractible when trying to concentrate”.
And this confirms what we already somewhat knew, most of the time, slightly bigger delayed
rewards and worth more than smaller immediate ones.
So what can we do, to actually achieve those delayed rewards, while resisting the temptations
of immediate ones?
Well as a starter, knowing the human nature and its relation to delay discounting is very
helpful.
When you are tempted with a smaller reward, like watching a tv series episode, or larger
delayed one, like going to the gym, - picking the former one would seem like a good idea
as our nature suggests, but knowing that your future self would really appreciate picking
the delayed reward, can help with the right choice.
Practice viewing the rewards from a future standpoint instead of discounting the value
just because they are not immediate.
Second.
Be mindful of how you use the internet.
The internet In-and-of-itself is not a bad thing that we should avoid, because I think
it does more good than harm.
What we should do, is exercise more self-control and lower our impulsivity while using it.
It is no coincidence that the higher Delay Discounting rates were found in Internet Addiction,
because of the instant nature of the Internet itself.
So If you catch yourself mindlessly watching videos that you didn’t intentionally searched
to watch, or if you are checking your phone every few minutes, or every time you’re
bored than you might be training your brain for impulsivity.
I would suggest you limit your usage of the internet for a period of time, and use it
more of a tool than a reward.
And lastly if we get back to the marshmallow experiment some of the kids actually found
an answer for the discounting problem on their own.
They devised games, songs, some covered their eyes, they talked to themselves and did anything
to get their minds off of the reward.
They reduced the immediate temptation which enabled them to resist the smaller reward,
wait, and have their second delicious marshmallow later.
In the experiment it was found that when no cognitive and attentional strategies were
used, delay was more difficult when the kids were exposed to the reward.
It is a good idea to design your environment where you can minimize the possibility of
you discounting the future and going for the immediate reward.
So if you go to the gym and you know - that if you don’t drink Coke or eat cookies between
meals - you’re going to increase your future progress, then simply removing the temptation
by hiding them from plain sight or not buying them at all, will likely help you delay your
instant gratification, and earn you that second delicious marshmallow.
If you find yourself lacking the patience or ability to wait and receive larger rewards,
if you find yourself impulsively picking immediate rewards that only benefit you in the short
term and damage your long term potential, these 3 tips will be a good starting point
to help you achieve the things you want.
And this last tip is also one of the best ways to develop new habits easily.
Environment plays a huge role in deciding if we develop good or bad habits.
So if any of you are interested in learning the science and actual ways to build habits
for good, you can check this 16 minute video that will teach you everything you need to
know from start to finish about habits.
Its inspired from the book Atomic habits, and it is filled with important information.
I hope these videos help, thanks for watching and I’ll see you in the next one.