Aims

To support the free and open dissemination of research findings and information on alcoholism and alcohol-related problems. To encourage open access to peer-reviewed articles free for all to view.

For full versions of posted research articles readers are encouraged to email requests for "electronic reprints" (text file, PDF files, FAX copies) to the corresponding or lead author, who is highlighted in the posting.

___________________________________________

Saturday, June 9, 2007

The behavioral economics of will in recovery from addiction
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
Volume 90, Supplement 1, September 2007, Pages S100-S11




Behavioral economic studies demonstrate that rewards are discounted proportionally with their delay (hyperbolic discounting). Hyperbolic discounting implies temporary preference for smaller rewards when they are imminent, and this concept has been widely considered by researchers interested in the causes of addictive behavior.

Far less consideration has been given to the fact that systematic preference reversal also predicts various self-control phenomena, which may also be analyzed from a behavioral economic perspective.

Here we summarize self-control phenomena predicted by hyperbolic discounting, particularly with application to the field of addiction.

Of greatest interest is the phenomenon of choice bundling, an increase in motivation to wait for delayed rewards that can be expected to result from making choices in whole categories.

Specifically, when a person's expectations about her own future behavior are conditional upon her current behavior, the value of these expectations is added to the contingencies for the current behavior, resulting in reduced impulsivity. Hyperbolic discounting provides a bottom–up basis for the intuitive learning of choice bundling, the properties of which match common descriptions of willpower.

We suggest that the bundling effect can also be discerned in the advice of 12-step programs.

Read Full Abstract

Reprint Request E-mail: jmont@ucla.edu

_____________________________________________________________