Slowing Time, Shaping the Future: The Effect of Mindfulness on Intertemporal Choice
Date
Authors
Errmann, Amy
Seo, Yuri
Septianto, Felix
Chu, Xing-Yu Marcos
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
Degree name
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Abstract
Consumers frequently face intertemporal choices that require trading off reward value against the delay before the reward is received. This research shows that mindfulness, defined as non-judgmental attention to and awareness of the present moment, increases consumers’ preference for delayed gratification. This occurs because mindfulness slows the subjective passage of time duration, leading consumers to perceive the future as more expansive; in other words, they feel “time-rich.” Consequently, they judge waiting for a larger reward as less costly, which makes the delayed option more attractive. Across six studies—two field investigations and four laboratory experiments, three of which used consequential behavioral measures—we provide convergent evidence for this effect and its underlying mechanism. The findings have practical implications both for consumers navigating trade-offs between immediate and delayed outcomes and for marketers designing more effective intertemporal incentives.Description
Keywords
35 Commerce, Management, Tourism and Services, 3506 Marketing, Complementary and Integrative Health, Behavioral and Social Science, 1505 Marketing, Marketing, Mindfulness, Perceived time duration, Future time perspective, Intertemporal choice, Delayed gratification
Source
International Journal of Research in Marketing, ISSN: 0167-8116 (Print), Elsevier BV. doi: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2025.10.006
Publisher's version
Rights statement
© 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons CC-BY license, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. You are not required to obtain permission to reuse this article.