Now or not-now? The influence of alexithymia on intertemporal decision-making.
Optimal intertemporal decisions arise from the balance between an emotional-visceral component, signaling the need for immediate gratification, and a rational, long-term oriented component. Alexithymia, a personality construct characterized by amplified sensitivity to internal bodily signals of arousal, may result in enhanced activation of the emotional-visceral component over the cognitive-rational one. To test this hypothesis, participants with high- and low-alexithymia level were compared at an intertemporal decision-making task, and their choice behavior correlated with their interoceptive sensitivity. We show that high-alexithymic tend to behave more impatiently than low-alexithymic in intertemporal decisions, particularly when the sooner reward is immediately available. Moreover, the greater their sensitivity to their own visceral sensations, the greater the impatience. Together, these results suggest a disproportionate valuation of reward available immediately in high alexithymia, possibly reflecting heightened perception of bodily physiological signals, which ultimately would bias their intertemporal decision-making.
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; CsrNC, Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy; Department of General Psychology, University of Padova, Padova, Italy.
Cristina
C
Scarpazza
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; CsrNC, Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy; Department of Biological Psychology, Justus-Liebig-Universität Giessen, Gieβen, Germany.
Manuela
M
Sellitto
Department of Psychology, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy; CsrNC, Center for Studies and Research in Cognitive Neuroscience, University of Bologna, Cesena, Italy; School of Psychology, Bangor University, United Kingdom. Electronic address: g.dipellegrino@unibo.it.
Giuseppe
G
di Pellegrino
D000328:Adult; D000342:Affective Symptoms / Q000523:psychology*; D003657:Decision Making / Q000502:physiology*; D065786:Delay Discounting / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality / Q000502:physiology*; D012201:Reward; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
Alexithymia; Bodily sensation; Decision making; Emotion; Interoceptive sensitivity; Intertemporal choice; Temporal discounting; Visceral factors