> So dread feels more painful than a level 6 shock? That seems alarming.
Not quite. The idea is that dread plus the eventual shock equals more than a 6. The strange part is that opting for higher amounts of pain right away goes against the widely accepted theory of temporal discounting—which says we place lower value on future outcomes. In positive situations, this plays out as a desire to have $10 today rather than wait for $12 a week from now.<p>So the title is clickbait, but more importantly for negative outcomes it seems time value would inverse? Less money now is worth more because you can invest it so it grows. And the theory says nothing about preferring something now or in the future, the point is you can do the math to find which is better - $10 or $10.70 in 1 year are exactly the same if you can guarantee a $0.70 return.<p>Time value is an economic theory, it seems incorrect to try to apply that to valuing human experiences.
I don't know enough from this article to know if they're actually measuring dread. If I were in the study I'd think "hm, I'd rather get a big shock now and leave ASAP than wait 15 minutes for a shock" - i.e. the main factor in my decision is how much I think my 15 minutes is worth. Did they make people wait 15 minutes anyway even if they chose to get the shock ASAP?