Behavioral Construction of the Future

Objective: To examine Howard Rachlin's hypothetical model of molar choice as a tactic for resisting addictions and to explore how some of its then-radical components can be developed to account for nonphysical and far future rewards. Method: The history of Rachlin's long dialog with the present author about molar choice is reviewed. The possible implications are described of both authors' proposal that behavior can depend entirely on reward. Results: Molar choice entails bringing wider-and thus further future-contingencies to bear on current choices. The two authors proposed mechanisms with different foci, which they respectively called teleological behaviorism and intertemporal bargaining. Laboratory results have been modest, but supplementary demonstrations by thought experiments and brain imaging are described. Both proposals have left open how the value of distant outcomes, such as sobriety, savings, and healthy aging, survives temporal discounting enough to compete with present motivational pressures. In contradiction to Rachlin, but following his suggestion that reward is behavior, it is deduced that some reward must be endogenous rather than secondary to external primary rewards. Endogenous reward is proposed as a fiat currency that can function only to the extent that it is protected from inflation by some kind of uniqueness (singularity). Such uniqueness can be provided by personal disciplines for testing reality, but also by extraneous factors such as needs, coincidences, and biases. Conclusions: Rachlin's teleological behaviorism is a valuable hypothesis, but limited by its ruling out of nonexternal rewards and of intrapersonal self-prediction, both of them useful for understanding nonsubstance addictions. Public Health Significance Statement This work reviews the 50-year discussion between Howard Rachlin and the author about the hyperbolic discounting of delayed reward, its role in addictions, and how rewards can be framed to overcome current temptations. A model of motivation for nonrealistic future beliefs is presented.