The influence of anger on delay discounting: The mediating role of certainty and control

Delay discounting occurs when, compared to current or recent benefits (or losses), people give future benefits (or losses) less weight and choose current or recent benefits (or losses). Delay discounting is an important research direction in the field of decision-making. Based on the Appraisal-Tendency Framework, the present study aimed to examine how anger influences an individual's delay discounting and then explore the underlying mechanism of the effect of anger on delay discounting. The key hypotheses-that anger would influence delay discounting and that certainty and control appraisal tendencies would drive this effect-were tested across three experiments. Experiment 1 investigated the effect of anger on delay gratification. In Experiments 2a and 2b, an experimental-causal-chain design was used to test (a) whether anger increases certainty-control relative to fear and neutral feelings, and (b) whether experiencing certainty-control increases one's delay gratification. In Experiment 3, a measurement-of-mediation design was used to test whether feelings of certainty-control stemming from anger predicted delay gratification. Simultaneously, we explored whether positive emotions associated with certainty-control produced increases in delay gratification. The focus was on pleasure as a positive, certainty-control-associated emotion. In Experiment 1, the results showed that compared with fear and neutral participants, angry participants were more likely to choose large and delayed rewards. In Experiment 2a, the results showed that compared with fear and neural participants, angry participants were more likely to experience certainty-control feelings. Then, in Experiment 2b, the results showed that compared with low certainty-control participants, high certainty-control participants were more likely to choose large and delayed rewards. In Experiment 3, the results showed that compared with fear and neutral participants, angry and pleasant participants experienced more certainty-control feelings and were more likely to choose large and delayed rewards. Furthermore, the mediation analysis showed that certainty-control feelings played a complete mediating role in the effect of anger and pleasure on delay discounting. Converging evidence from the three experiments indicated that incidental anger can influence delay discounting. Compared with fear and neutral feelings, those experiencing anger were more likely to choose larger and delayed rewards (Experiment 1). Importantly, these two experiments provide direct process evidence by showing that the certainty and control appraisal tendencies triggered by anger may underlie its delay gratification-enhancing effects (Experiments 2 and Experiment 3). Furthermore, experiencing certaintycontrol-associated emotions (i.e., anger and pleasure), regardless of valence, increased to the likelihood that individuals would choose larger and delayed rewards (Experiment 3). The current research supports the hypotheses that anger increases delay gratification and that certainty and control appraisal tendencies drive this effect. These findings have important implications for understanding the mechanism underlying the effect of specific negative emotions on intertemporal choice.