The human brain is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating and flawed things ever created. In just a few seconds, it may seem like the most complex engineering work in the world, and quite the opposite. Generally speaking, its structure is solid, but there are “holes” through which we differentiate ourselves from each other, we think and “see” the world in an arbitrary way, absolutely wrong, because we think we are almost always right. And of all the pillars of this defect, none like cognitive biases.

Tomorrow I’m going to the gym, today I’m watching Netflix. No one can escape the prejudice practiced decades ago. It’s easy to explain because we’ve all been in the same conflict at some point. We’re talking about “hyperbolic discounting,” which is the same bias in which people prefer short-term actions to the benefits of other long-term actions.

Bottom line: As things get more complex and we look to the future, our brain reduces the importance of the uncertain future in our decision-making process. That’s why we make long-term commitments that we rarely make in the short term. Imagine knowing that the excesses you do and that they are bad for your body, you set a long-term goal to stop it. Do you remember one? This is the bias of hyperbolic discounting.

Formulation. Exaggeration discounting bias was identified in the 1960s by psychologist Richard Herrnstein, who later formulated it to explain how people tend to prefer immediate rewards to larger future rewards by disproportionately underestimating long-term consequences. Why “hyperbolic”? It refers to the nonlinear way in which people discount the value of future rewards, as opposed to exponential discounting, which is more constant.

Evolution. Following Herrnstein’s formulation, psychologists such as George Ainslie expanded the theory in the 1970s; For example, Ainslie was instrumental in showing that the choice between immediate and future rewards can explain many human phenomena such as procrastination and addiction.

In fact, he proposed the “instant gratification” model, in which a short-term reward becomes more attractive as it gets closer, leading to impulsive decisions. This concept was particularly important because it applied to a wide range of behaviors, from thriftiness to overconsumption of food.

Applied psychology. Hyperbolic discounting took off in a big way when it began to significantly influence other fields, such as behavioral economics, where researchers such as Daniel Kahneman and Richard Thaler studied how people make inconsistent decisions about their future. Work that helps consolidate the field of intertemporal decision making, analyzing how people value time and rewards.

Then famous experiments were conducted in which four-year-old children were offered one candy now, and two in 15 minutes. Predictably, few children decided to wait because it was too difficult for them to delay gratification. Interestingly, this phenomenon is also repeated in adults. If they offer you 100 euros now or 120 euros in three months, reason usually favors impulsiveness, i.e. less money but sooner.

Prejudice according to science. They told New Scientist that although making effort improves our well-being, we tend to avoid it. The human brain is designed to preserve energy and avoid sudden discomfort; This leads us to procrastinate or take the easy way out, even though demanding activities (like exercise or mental challenges) have proven benefits for physical and mental health.

This phenomenon is linked to the way we value short-term comfort over long-term rewards. Despite these benefits, the brain often prioritizes immediate pleasure over results that require time and effort. Research shows that people tend to underestimate how good they will feel after completing a demanding task, leading them to avoid activities that could improve long-term well-being. Only by overcoming this natural bias can they be satisfied and improve their quality of life.

Against this idea. Of course, there are those who do not see prejudice this way at all. Although exaggerated discounting is widely accepted, there are also studies that challenge this idea, pointing out that in some contexts people do not show irrational preferences for immediate rewards.

For example, some quasi-hyperbolic discounting models, such as the beta-delta model, adjust human behavior to be more compatible with exponential discounting and suggest that people can remain rational in their decision-making if incentives are properly aligned. Other studies also highlight the importance of context and emotional factors that can change how we value future rewards.

Finally, the concept of “temporal myopia” (difficulty of long-term evaluation) explains how decisions may be more influenced by the perception of risk and uncertainty about the future than by a natural bias towards immediate rewards.

Draw Tweets from the gym. We didn’t want anyone to feel bad about not going to the gym after projecting it into the future. We actually have a headline article on the subject that Vox started a while ago. In this book, the idea that exercise is the key to weight loss is revealed after analyzing dozens of studies, emphasizing that diet plays a much more important role. Although exercise has many health benefits, such as improving fitness and cardiovascular health, it is not as effective for weight loss as you might think.

The body adapts to the calories expended during exercise, and in addition, people often consume more calories after exercise. For this reason, it is suggested that calorie restriction is a more decisive factor in weight loss. Additionally, it explains how our metabolism adjusts energy expenditure in response to exercise, reducing the expected caloric impact. Clearly, physical activity remains essential for overall health, but control over calorie intake has a much greater impact on weight loss, or at least more than we think.

The important thing, it seems, is to understand that exercise alone without proper nutritional management does not produce the expected results.

Picture | Matt Biddulph, PXHere

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