Abstract:

Intertemporal decision-making, which is vital for human beings, refers to the tradeoff between the benefit and cost of choices at different times. The self of the decision-maker greatly influences intertemporal decisions. Furthermore, cultural individualism-collectivism plays an important role in shaping the self. However, the relationship among the self, intertemporal decision-making, and cultural individualism- collectivism is vague in the context of cultural individualism-collectivism. Hence, we explore the influence of the self on intertemporal decision-making from the perspective of cultural individualism-collectivism. First, we introduce concepts of intertemporal decision-making and their theoretical development. Next, we summarize two theories of the self in intertemporal decision-making: multiple-self model and self-continuity model. Then, we review the relationship between cultural individualism-collectivism and self, and briefly summarize studies on the influence of culture on intertemporal decision-making and its psychological mechanisms. Finally, we come up with a research conjecture that taking cultural individualism-collectivism into consideration when studying the influence of self on intertemporal decision-making. Our research exploration aims to provide a new viewpoint for future research and deepen our understanding of the mechanisms of intertemporal decision-making.

Key words: intertemporal decision-making, culture, self, individualism, collectivism