Discounting the Future

Would you rather have a fiver today or a tenner this time next year? That kind of calculation is called 'discounting', and the more you'd rather have the fiver today, the more you are discounting the future.  Humans are hardwired to lean towards getting things now, unless the deal is sufficiently sweet. 

That preference makes sense when you evolved to not know where your next antelope was coming from. But our bias towards discounting the future is one of the reasons we haven't done enough about climate change. So.... we'd better learn to hack it.  

On this Micro episode, I revisit my chat from 2023 with cognitive scientist Adam Bulley. We chatted then all about foresight; the brain's amazing ability to jump forward (and backward in time) to make calculations about what to do today - and how it's a deeply imperfect but very human part of what made us the species we are today. 

OWL at 3:00: here's more about economic discounting. 

Please do consider chipping in a couple of quid over at http://www.patreon.com/yourbrainonclimate. And a written review would be ace. Please thank you please. 

The show is hosted and produced by me, Dave Powell. The show is over on Instagram at @yourbrainonclimate. 

YBOC theme music and iterations thereof, by me.  Show logo by Arthur Stovell at www.designbymondial.com.