Beyond delay: Discounting rewards for sustained self-control
Abstract
Conventional intertemporal choice measures (e.g., delay discounting) often focus on the cost of waiting for a reward. Yet, achieving many long-term health goals also requires continuously exerting self-control while forgoing an immediately rewarding alternative. To quantify these subjective costs, we introduced a novel abstinence discounting paradigm and tested it in a consequential context: nicotine use. Abstinence discounting assessed one’s preference for larger monetary rewards contingent on maintaining nicotine abstinence versus smaller, noncontingent monetary rewards that do not require abstinence. Among e-cigarette users (N = 253; Mage = 28.66, SDage = 4.22, 54.15% female, 45.85% male; 57.71% White, 20.16% Black, 9.09% Hispanic, 6.32% Mixed), abstinence discounting related more closely and consistently with nicotine dependence, craving, and cessation motivation while explaining unique variance in these outcomes beyond delay discounting. These findings support extending intertemporal choice research beyond the temporal distance of outcomes to consider the sustained self-control demands required to achieve them.
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BibTeX
@misc{wahlers2026beyond,
title = {{Beyond delay: Discounting rewards for sustained self-control}},
author = {Justin Wahlers and Jonathan Westlake and Oh-Ryeong Ha and Steven Seung-Suk Kang and Delwyn Catley and Seung-Lark Lim},
howpublished = {PsyArXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.31234/osf.io/uta6x_v1},
url = {https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/uta6x_v1/},
note = {CC0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Beyond delay: Discounting rewards for sustained self-control
AU - Justin Wahlers
AU - Jonathan Westlake
AU - Oh-Ryeong Ha
AU - Steven Seung-Suk Kang
AU - Delwyn Catley
AU - Seung-Lark Lim
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/17
PB - PsyArXiv
DO - 10.31234/osf.io/uta6x_v1
UR - https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/uta6x_v1/
AB - Conventional intertemporal choice measures (e.g., delay discounting) often focus on the cost of waiting for a reward. Yet, achieving many long-term health goals also requires continuously exerting self-control while forgoing an immediately rewarding alternative. To quantify these subjective costs, we introduced a novel abstinence discounting paradigm and tested it in a consequential context: nicotine use. Abstinence discounting assessed one’s preference for larger monetary rewards contingent on maintaining nicotine abstinence versus smaller, noncontingent monetary rewards that do not require abstinence. Among e-cigarette users (N = 253; Mage = 28.66, SDage = 4.22, 54.15% female, 45.85% male; 57.71% White, 20.16% Black, 9.09% Hispanic, 6.32% Mixed), abstinence discounting related more closely and consistently with nicotine dependence, craving, and cessation motivation while explaining unique variance in these outcomes beyond delay discounting. These findings support extending intertemporal choice research beyond the temporal distance of outcomes to consider the sustained self-control demands required to achieve them.
ER -