The Impact Of Relative Deprivation On Intertemporal Decision-making And The Exploration Of Internal Mechanisms

When comparing the economic situation among individuals,the disadvantaged individuals realize their own situation and may produce negative emotions such as dissatisfaction and anger.Such psychological state is called "relative deprivation".Relative deprivation may have adverse effects on individual's mental health and behavior decision-making,such as alcohol abuse,gambling and other negative behaviors.Intertemporal decision-making is a type of decision-making that individuals often encounter in their daily life.In order to explore whether relative economic deprivation can lead to people's "short-sighted" behavior in intertemporal decision-making and the mechanism of self-control in it,this paper explores the relationship among relative economic deprivation,intertemporal decision-making and sense of self-control by using the method of questionnaire survey and behavioral experiment.This research enriches the content and practical application of related theories.In the first study,336 online questionnaires were collected to examine the effects of demographic variables and socio-economic status indicators on the sense of relative deprivation and the relationship between the sense of relative deprivation and intertemporal decision-making.The results show that socio-economic status is related to the sense of relative deprivation;discount rate of intertemporal decision-making is related to the sense of relative deprivation.Study 2 recruited 64 undergraduates,and divided them into high and low groups to analyze the probability of instant choice and reaction in different tasks,and to test the mediating effect of self-reported sense of control score.The results show that the high deprivation subjects preferred immediate benefits more than the low deprivation subjects;subjects in the difficult task preferred immediate benefits and had longer reaction time;subjects in the easy task preferred delayed benefits more;and the sense of control played a mediating role in the influence of relative deprivation on intertemporal decision-making.Therefore,this study concludes that sense of relative deprivation in social comparison will affect the individual's sense of self-control,and further enhance the preference for immediate benefits,resulting in a "short-sighted" phenomenon.To improve this phenomenon,we need not only to improve the individual's social and economic status,but also,more importantly,to improve the individual's self-control ability through effective psychological construction.