Scientific Definition
How much we value the present over the future.
Plain-English Definition
How much we value the present over the future.
Feynman Explanation
A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. Usually too much more.
Core Principle
How much we value the present over the future.
Mechanisms
Pending editorial review.
How much we value the present over the future.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
High discount rates explain short-termism.
Inputs (Triggers)
Pending editorial review.
Outputs (Behaviors)
Pending editorial review.
Behavioral Signature
A dollar today is worth more than a dollar tomorrow. Usually too much more.
Examples
- Companies underinvest in maintenance because the payoff is delayed.
- High discount rates explain short-termism.
Pending editorial review.
Famous Experiments
Pending editorial review.
Design Principles
- Use lower discount rates for long-term strategic investments.
Measurement Approaches
Pending editorial review.
Evidence
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
The Perverse Incentive Lens™
How this behavior is exploited — and how to redesign around it.
- Use lower discount rates for long-term strategic investments.
Pending editorial review.
Pending editorial review.
Interactive Mini Network
Click any neighbor to re-center the graph and follow the threads of connection.
Knowledge Graph Neighbors
Auto-linked to the rest of the Human Behavior Taxonomy by family, domain, dimension, and shared keywords.
The relative valuation we place on rewards now vs. later — and how steeply we discount.
Small advantages, applied consistently, become uncatchable.
How vividly we connect to our future self predicts long-term decision quality.
An automatic action triggered by a stable cue — built through repetition.
A single habit whose adoption cascades into many other behavior changes.
Creative work needs blocks of hours; managerial work runs on 30-minute slices. They destroy each other when mixed.
Where you can go is constrained by where you've been.
A present-bias kink (β) on top of exponential discounting (δ): immediate rewards get a bonus, all future rewards trade normally.
People preferentially process experience visually, auditorily, or kinesthetically. Match the channel; match the mind.
We judge probability by how similar an event is to a prototype.
H1 (managing the present) + H2 (transition mechanisms) + H3 (transformative futures) held simultaneously.
Our decisions are influenced by when events occur or when we evaluate them.