Decisions in intertemporal choice have become one of the main indicators able to detect some specific addictive behaviors and other diseases. For example, a gambling addict or a substance abuser (specifically, a drug addict) may exhibit high levels of impatience in intertemporal decisions where monetary and non-monetary rewards are involved.
It is well known that intertemporal choices can be ruled by a discount function which is the mathematical instrument able to quantify the main parameters related to decisions where delayed and interval times are present. Thus, a high level of impatience means that the rate derived from the discount function is excessive. But, not only may an excessive discount rate be the alert signal of an individual disorder. In effect, the process of intertemporal choice can exhibit other anomalies with respect to the Discounted Utility model proposed by Samuelson in 1936, such as the so-called delay, interval, magnitude, sign and improving sequence effects, or the well-known delay-speedup asymmetry.
Therefore, the main objective of this special issue (Time discounting as a tool to assess addictive behaviors and other disorders) of the journal “Frontiers in Public Health” is the analysis of certain addictive behaviors and other diseases, and its effects on the parameters of the discount function fitting the indifference between intertemporal decisions. The methodology used in the special issue can go from the empirical research on medical or psychological treatment of addictions and other disorders to the mathematical analysis of the discount models associated to the intertemporal processes involving rewards selection. Therefore, theoretical and empirical works will be welcome. Summarizing, our aim is to build a bridge connecting, on the one hand, medical and psychological analyses, and, on the other hand, quantitative models derived from observed individual or group behaviors.
The research topic included in this special issue of “Frontiers in Public Health” could be of interest for scholars belonging to a wide variety of expertise areas, such as Medicine, Psychology, Economics, Financial Mathematics and, in general, all researches who investigate behavioral disorders that can be related to a specific pattern in intertemporal decisions with monetary and non-monetary rewards. In effect, nowadays, societies face some current problems such as stress, anxiety, gambling offer, drugs, etc. of a wide target population whereby all instruments able to detect or diagnose early diseases are very interesting for public health.
The results expected from this special issue are very promising because there are lots of research teams in all over the world which are working on this topic from different points of view: descriptive, quantitative, inductive, deductive, etc. In this way, this special issue can serve to collect all papers written around the aforementioned central topic, then avoiding the inconveniences of finding an appropriate outlet to share the wide variety of expected contributions. Finally, we hope that this initiative can serve as a mean for connecting fruitful ideas tending to reach a healthier public environment.
Decisions in intertemporal choice have become one of the main indicators able to detect some specific addictive behaviors and other diseases. For example, a gambling addict or a substance abuser (specifically, a drug addict) may exhibit high levels of impatience in intertemporal decisions where monetary and non-monetary rewards are involved.
It is well known that intertemporal choices can be ruled by a discount function which is the mathematical instrument able to quantify the main parameters related to decisions where delayed and interval times are present. Thus, a high level of impatience means that the rate derived from the discount function is excessive. But, not only may an excessive discount rate be the alert signal of an individual disorder. In effect, the process of intertemporal choice can exhibit other anomalies with respect to the Discounted Utility model proposed by Samuelson in 1936, such as the so-called delay, interval, magnitude, sign and improving sequence effects, or the well-known delay-speedup asymmetry.
Therefore, the main objective of this special issue (Time discounting as a tool to assess addictive behaviors and other disorders) of the journal “Frontiers in Public Health” is the analysis of certain addictive behaviors and other diseases, and its effects on the parameters of the discount function fitting the indifference between intertemporal decisions. The methodology used in the special issue can go from the empirical research on medical or psychological treatment of addictions and other disorders to the mathematical analysis of the discount models associated to the intertemporal processes involving rewards selection. Therefore, theoretical and empirical works will be welcome. Summarizing, our aim is to build a bridge connecting, on the one hand, medical and psychological analyses, and, on the other hand, quantitative models derived from observed individual or group behaviors.
The research topic included in this special issue of “Frontiers in Public Health” could be of interest for scholars belonging to a wide variety of expertise areas, such as Medicine, Psychology, Economics, Financial Mathematics and, in general, all researches who investigate behavioral disorders that can be related to a specific pattern in intertemporal decisions with monetary and non-monetary rewards. In effect, nowadays, societies face some current problems such as stress, anxiety, gambling offer, drugs, etc. of a wide target population whereby all instruments able to detect or diagnose early diseases are very interesting for public health.
The results expected from this special issue are very promising because there are lots of research teams in all over the world which are working on this topic from different points of view: descriptive, quantitative, inductive, deductive, etc. In this way, this special issue can serve to collect all papers written around the aforementioned central topic, then avoiding the inconveniences of finding an appropriate outlet to share the wide variety of expected contributions. Finally, we hope that this initiative can serve as a mean for connecting fruitful ideas tending to reach a healthier public environment.
