Cultural Neuroeconomics of Intertemporal Choice

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Cultural Neuroeconomics
of Intertemporal Choice

Taiki Takahashi¹ , Tarik Hadzibeganovic² , Sergio A. Cannas³,
Takaki Makino⁴ , Hiroki Fukui⁵ , and Shinobu Kitayama⁶

¹ Department of Behavioral Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan

² Cognitive Science Section, Department of Psychology, University of Graz
Universitatsplatz 2/III; A-8010 Graz, Austria

³ Facultad de Matematica, Astronomla y Fisica, Universidad Nacional de Cordoba
Ciudad Universitaria, 5000 Cordoba, Argentina

⁴ Department of Frontier Science and Science Integration

The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

⁵ Department of Forensic Psychiatry, National Institute of Mental Health
National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo, Japan

⁶ Department of Psychology

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Abstract

According to theories of cultural neuroscience, Westerners and East-
erners may have distinct styles of cognition (e.g., different allocation of
attention). Previous research has shown that Westerners and Easterners
tend to utilize analytical and holistic cognitive styles, respectively. On the
other hand, little is known regarding the cultural differences in neuroe-
conomic behavior. For instance, economic decisions may be affected by
cultural differences in neurocomputational processing underlying atten-
tion; however, this area of neuroeconomics has been largely understudied.
In the present paper, we attempt to bridge this gap by considering the
links between the theory of cultural neuroscience and neuroeconomic the-
ory of the role of attention in intertemporal choice. We predict that (i)
Westerners are more impulsive and inconsistent in intertemporal choice
in comparison to Easterners, and (ii) Westerners more steeply discount
delayed monetary losses than Easterners. We examine these predictions
by utilizing a novel temporal discounting model based on Tsallis’ statis-
tics (i.e. a q-exponential model). Our preliminary analysis of temporal
discounting of gains and losses by Americans and Japanese confirmed the
predictions from the cultural neuroeconomic theory. Future study direc-
tions, employing computational modeling via neural networks, are briefly
outlined and discussed.

Keywords: Cultural neuroscience, neuroeconomics, intertemporal choice,
attention allocation, Tsallis’ statistics, neural networks.

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