Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear: the role of mental time travel in intertemporal decision making

Abstract

Intertemporal choice is certainly a matter of study dear to economists, for many decisions which are economic in nature reflect its commonsensical feature, that of an action whose associated consequences are deferred in time and, therefore, temporally separated from the decision itself. Given the great deal of occurrences in which our immediate choices have inevitably delayed outcomes, it only seems sensible to focus our attention on the mental processes behind the attribution of value in intertemporal setting and on the manners in which such mechanisms challenge the traditional economic models of intertemporal choice: the first chapter of this work is entrusted with this goal. The ability to simulate and access future states, emotions and contingencies, both involving us as protagonists and mere participants, in particular, seems to be crucial for a reliable, useful and, perhaps, successful evaluation of future situations and associated outcomes. Mental time travel refers to our faculty to mentally project ourselves backwards in time to re-live given events, or, forwards to pre-live them. Evolutionary considerations well allow for the possibility that a vivid memory and an imaginative foresight may be pivotal cognitive mechanisms for human decision-making processes, constituting a system with notable flexibility features in its design to grant ourselves outstanding adaptability in a complex, dynamic environment. The second chapter unravels by discussing the necessary conditions and the neural substrates identifiable in mental time travel engagement, as well as its implications, reviewing the evolutionary grounds speculated to have allowed for its emergence in the first place and their relevance in economic terms, and dedicating much needed attention to studies investigating mental time travel aptitude in nonhuman animals. The work then proceeds to disclose its experimental core in Chapters III and IV.