ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Psychol.
Sec. Cognition
This article is part of the Research TopicThe Cognitive Mechanisms and Contextual Factors Underlying Social Cognition and BehaviorView all articles
The Impact of Subjective Socioeconomic Status and Threat Cues on Intertemporal Decision-Making
Provisionally accepted
- Hunan Normal University, Changsha, China
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Intertemporal decision-making is the process by which individuals weigh the trade-offs between rewards and losses at different time points. This study investigates the influence of subjective socioeconomic status on intertemporal decision-making under varying threat cues, specifically resource scarcity and environmental uncertainty. Study 1 examines the effects of subjective socioeconomic status across conditions of resource scarcity (scarce vs. control vs. abundant) on intertemporal decisions. Study 2 explores the effects of subjective socioeconomic status under conditions of environmental uncertainty (uncertain vs. control vs. certain) on intertemporal decision-making. The results indicate that: (1) subjective socioeconomic status has a significant impact on intertemporal decision-making, with individuals of lower subjective socioeconomic status showing a greater preference for immediate rewards compared to those of higher subjective socioeconomic status; (2) threat cues also significantly affect intertemporal decision-making, as individuals in the resource scarcity and environmental uncertainty groups demonstrate a stronger preference for immediate rewards compared to those in the control group and the positive cue group; (3) resource scarcity moderates the relationship between subjective socioeconomic status and intertemporal decision-making. In the resource scarcity group, individuals with lower subjective socioeconomic status prefer immediate gratification more than their higher-status counterparts; however, no significant differences in intertemporal decision preferences are observed among individuals with differing subjective socioeconomic statuses in the control and abundant groups; (4) environmental uncertainty acts as a moderator between subjective socioeconomic status and intertemporal choices, with individuals of lower subjective socioeconomic status preferring immediate gratification more in the uncertain environment than those with higher subjective socioeconomic status; again, no significant differences are noted in the control and certain environment groups regarding intertemporal decision preferences among different socioeconomic status groups. This research expands the field of intertemporal decision-making by demonstrating how culturally embedded threat cues in China (e.g., intense social mobility competition and family-based obligations) condition the SSS–intertemporal choice link, contributing to a more objective understanding of the decision preferences of individuals with low subjective socioeconomic status.
Keywords: Environmental uncertainty, Intertemporal decision-making, Resource scarcity, subjective socioeconomic status, Threat cues
Received: 30 Dec 2025; Accepted: 10 Feb 2026.
Copyright: © 2026 Zeng, Chen and Qu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: We Guo Qu
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