Imagining Future Benefits Can Help People Avoid Making Impulsive Decisions

A new study found that when people start imagining future benefits, they automatically avoid making impulsive decisions.

Ever made a decision for the moment and regretted it later? Well, there's some help for impulsive people.

Scientists have now found a way to help people avoid making impulsive decisions that they may regret later. According to a new study conducted by researchers from Washington University in St. Louis, impulsiveness can be avoided by imagining future benefits.

Researchers stated that people who feel good about future benefits can easily avoid making impulsive choices for momentary or smaller gains.

"Activity in one part of the brain, the anterior prefrontal cortex , seems to show whether you're getting pleasure from thinking about the future reward you are about to receive," said study co-author Todd Braver, PhD, professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences. "People can relate to this idea that when you know something good is coming, just that waiting can feel pleasurable."

Unlike previous research on delayed gratification that had people choose between hypothetical rewards of money over long delays (e.g, $500 now or $1,000 a year from now), the Washington University study presented their participants with real rewards of squirts of juice that they can receive either immediately or after a delay of up to a minute.

"It's kind of funny because we treated the people in our study like researchers that work with animals do, and we actually squirted juice into their mouths," Braver said.

Overall, the study suggests people may be impulsive because they do not or cannot imagine the future, so they prefer rewards right away. This research could be useful for assessing the effects of clinical treatments for impulsivity problems, which can lead to issues such as gambling and substance abuse disorders.

A similar brain imaging approach as used in the Washington University study could allow clinicians to track the effects of an intervention on changes not only in impulsive behavior but also the brain's response to stimuli of any other kind.

"One possible treatment approach could be to enhance mental functions in aPFC, a brain region well-known to be associated with cognitive control," Jimura said.

By increasing cognitive control, impulsive patients could learn to reject their immediate impulses.