title: Personality influences temporal discounting preferences: behavioral and brain evidence.
abstract: Personality traits are stable predictors of many life outcomes that are associated with important decisions that involve tradeoffs over time. Therefore, a fundamental question is how tradeoffs over time vary from person to person in relation to stable personality traits. We investigated the influence of personality, as measured by the Five-Factor Model, on time preferences and on neural activity engaged by intertemporal choice. During functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), participants made choices between smaller-sooner and larger-later monetary rewards. For each participant, we estimated a constant-sensitivity discount function that dissociates impatience (devaluation of future consequences) from time sensitivity (consistency with rational, exponential discounting). Overall, higher neuroticism was associated with a relatively greater preference for immediate rewards and higher conscientiousness with a relatively greater preference for delayed rewards. Specifically, higher conscientiousness correlated positively with lower short-term impatience and more exponential time preferences, whereas higher neuroticism (lower emotional stability) correlated positively with higher short-term impatience and less exponential time preferences. Cognitive-control and reward brain regions were more activated when higher conscientiousness participants selected a smaller-sooner reward and, conversely, when higher neuroticism participants selected a larger-later reward. The greater activations that occurred when choosing rewards that contradicted personality predispositions may reflect the greater recruitment of mental resources needed to override those predispositions. These findings reveal that stable personality traits fundamentally influence how rewards are chosen over time.
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. Electronic address: joshuam@mit.edu.
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Manning
authors.affiliation: Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Department of Radiology, Massachusetts General Hospital, 149 13th St., Suite 2301, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA; Department of Radiology, Harvard Medical School, 25 Shattuck St., Boston, MA 02115, USA.
authors.forename: Trey
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hedden
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Nina
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Wickens
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Whitfield-Gabrieli
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: Drazen
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Prelec
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA; McGovern Institute for Brain Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
authors.forename: John D E
authors.initials: JD
authors.lastname: Gabrieli
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D001931:Brain Mapping; D065786:Delay Discounting / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D009483:Neuropsychological Tests; D000075384:Neuroticism; D010551:Personality; D012201:Reward; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Decision making; Delayed discounting; Personality; Reward; fMRI