You have probably seen cases where your mood influences your
choices. You watch different movies when
you are sad than when you are not. You
listen to different music. You engage in
different activities.
Is it possible, though, that being sad could cost you money?
This issue was examined in an interesting paper in the
January, 2013 issue of Psychological
Science by Jennifer Lerner, Ye Li, and Elke Weber.
They were interested in whether people who are sad are biased
to want to get a reward now rather than waiting for a larger reward in the
future. The idea was that sad people
might want to get something now in order to help them improve their mood. By taking something now, though, they may be
giving up something more that they could have down the line.
In one study, participants watched one of three video
clips. Those in the Sad condition
watched a sad video about someone dying.
Those in the Disgust condition watched a video about someone reaching
into a vile toilet. The Disgust
condition was used to ensure that the results were due to sadness and not just
due to a negative emotion. Finally,
those in the Neutral condition watched a video about a coral reef.
After the mood induction, participants made a series of
choices between getting a certain amount of money now and a larger amount of
money some time in the future.
(Participants were told that some participants would actually be given
the rewards they chose, so they should choose carefully.) The idea behind these studies is to examine
how much more money people need to get in the future in order to give up a
particular sum right now. Overall,
people in the sad condition were more likely to take money now rather than
waiting. The median person in the sad
condition needed to get only $37 in order to give up $85 in 3 months. While the median person in the Neutral
condition needed $56 in order to give up $85 in 3 months. The people in the Disgust condition acted
similarly to those in the Neutral condition.
So, these results are specific to feeling sad, and are not true of any
negative mood.
So, sad people wanted to get a reward right now, even if it
meant giving up much more money in the future.
Another study in this series added a clever wrinkle. From the results of the first study alone,
you can’t tell whether sad people want something immediately or they are just
more likely than other people to prefer rewards nearer to the present than
those farther off into the future.
To test this idea, participants were shown either a sad or a
neutral video. Then, they were asked to
choose between rewards they would get now and in the future or rewards that
they would get two weeks from now and further in the future. This design allows the researchers to tease
apart these two possibilities. If
participants in the Sad condition always take less money for nearer events than
further, it suggests that they don’t want to wait for future events. However, if they only take less money for
immediate rewards but not for those where two weeks is the nearer event, it
would suggest that sad people are biased to get something right now.
The results of this study showed clearly that sad
participants were biased to take rewards immediately over waiting for the
future. When the reward that was nearer
in time was still two weeks away, the participants in the Sad condition acted
like those in the Neutral condition.
Putting this all together, when you are sad, you engage
mechanisms to make yourself happier in that moment. One thing that you will do is to seek
immediate rewards rather than focusing on larger rewards you might get in the
future. That bias may cost you in the
future.
If you find yourself feeling sad, try to avoid making
decisions that trade off the present for the future. In that sad mood, you will probably
short-change your future self in order to get something immediately. Instead, try to delay your choice until your
mood improves.
