A Self‐Control Choice Paradigm Including Loss of Rewards: Effects of Amount of Experience of Larger‐Later Outcomes and Social Comparison Information1

This study investigated whether factors that have been shown to affect self‐control choice in prior studies can also influence human self‐control choice in the “smaller‐sooner loss/larger‐later gain–smaller‐sooner gain/larger‐later loss (Sl/Lg–Sg/Ll) paradigm”. Two experiments were conducted among Japanese undergraduate students to examine the effects of the length of delay and amount of experience of larger‐later gains and losses (Experiment 1) and social comparison information (Experiment 2) on self‐control choice. Self‐control choice became more frequent as the amount of experience of larger‐later gains and losses increased and became more frequent with social comparison information. These results suggest that the amount of experience of larger‐later outcomes and availability of social comparison information promote self‐control choice.