Delay Discounting of Different Commodities Varies as a Function of Political Party Affiliation in a College Sample

Delay discounting has been used as a measure of both self control and of value for a particular commodity. Two hundred sixty five college psychology students who self identified as being either a Democrat or a Republican completed a delaydiscounting task involving five different commodities (two monetary values, retirement income, Federal legislation, and medical treatment). Analyzing the area under the discounting curve, results showed that Democrats discounted all commodities to a greater extent than did Republicans. These results may suggest that Democrats are more apt than Republicans to prefer immediate results or that they value these commodities to a lesser degree than Republicans. Members of both parties, however, displayed similar changes in discounting across commodities, indicating a similar pattern of relative values.