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Bleak present, bright future: II. Combined effects of episodic future thinking and scarcity on delay discounting in adults at risk for type 2 diabetes

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Abstract

The present study sought to determine if episodic future thinking (EFT) can decrease delay discounting (DD) and demand for fast food under simulations of economic scarcity in adults at risk for diabetes (i.e., overweight/obese and with hemoglobin A1c values in, or approaching, the prediabetic range). Across two sessions, participants completed assessments of DD and food demand at baseline and while prompted to: (1) engage in either EFT or control episodic recent thinking, and (2) while reading a brief narrative describing either economic scarcity or neutral income conditions. Results showed that EFT significantly reduced DD, whereas the economic scarcity narrative significantly increased DD; no significant interaction between EFT and scarcity was observed. No significant effect of either EFT or scarcity was observed on food demand. We conclude that EFT decreases DD even when challenged by simulated economic scarcity in adults at risk for diabetes. The absence of a significant interaction between EFT and scarcity suggests that these variables operate independently to influence DD in opposing directions. Effects of EFT and economic scarcity on food demand require further study. The present study was registered on clinicaltrials.gov (NCT03664726).

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Science of Behavior Change Common Fund Program through an award administered by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (1UH2DK109543), awarded to Drs. Epstein and Bickel.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Transformative Research on Health Behaviors, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, 1 Riverside Circle, Roanoke, VA, 24016, USA

    Jeffrey S. Stein, William H. Craft, Kirstin M. Gatchalian & Warren K. Bickel

  2. School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, University at Buffalo Jacobs, Buffalo, NY, USA

    Rocco A. Paluch, Teresa Quattrin, Lucy D. Mastrandrea & Leonard H. Epstein

  3. Department of Family and Community Medicine, Carilion Clinic, Roanoke, VA, USA

    Mark H. Greenawald

Authors
  1. Jeffrey S. Stein
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  2. William H. Craft
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  4. Kirstin M. Gatchalian
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  5. Mark H. Greenawald
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  9. Warren K. Bickel
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Contributions

WKB, LHE, and JSS designed the experiment. All authors assisted in the conduct of the experiment. JSS and RAP performed data analyses. JSS drafted the manuscript, with feedback from all authors. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeffrey S. Stein.

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Conflict of interest

Although the following activities/relationships do not create conflict of interests pertaining to this manuscript, in the interest of full disclosure, we would like to report the following: Warren K. Bickel is a principal of HealthSim, LLC; Notifius, LLC; BEAM Diagnostics, Inc.; and a partner for Red 5 Group, LLC. In addition, he serves on the scientific advisory board for Sober Grid, Inc.; Ria Health; US WorldMeds, LLC; and is a consultant for Alkermes, Inc. and Nektar Therapeutics. Dr. Mastrandrea received research funding from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, NovoNordisk, Sanofi Aventis, and AstraZeneca. The other authors do not declare any conflict of interest with respect to the authorship or publication of this article.

Human and animal rights and Informed consent

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study and all study procedures were approved by the University at Buffalo Institutional Review Boards.

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Stein, J.S., Craft, W.H., Paluch, R.A. et al. Bleak present, bright future: II. Combined effects of episodic future thinking and scarcity on delay discounting in adults at risk for type 2 diabetes. J Behav Med 44, 222–230 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10865-020-00178-7

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