NCT05110716

Effects of Choice Bundling on Valuation of Delayed Gains and Losses in Cigarette Smokers

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 308 (actual)
• Sponsor: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 21 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The present study will investigate the effects of choice bundling, in which a single choice produces a series of repeating consequences, on valuation of delayed monetary gains and losses in an online panel of cigarette smokers.

Detailed description

Choice bundling, in which a single choice produces a series of repeating consequences, has been shown to increase valuation of delayed monetary and non-monetary gains. Interventions derived from this manipulation may be an effective method for mitigating the elevated delay discounting rates observed in cigarette smokers. No prior work, however, has investigated whether effects of choice bundling generalize to reward losses. In the present study, an online panel of cigarette smokers, recruited using Ipsos, will complete assessments for either monetary gains or losses (randomly assigned). In Step 1, participants will complete a delay-discounting task to establish Effective Delay 50 (ED50), or the delay required for a monetary outcome to lose half of its value. In Step 2, participants will complete three conditions of an adjusting-amount task, choosing between a smaller, sooner (SS) adjusting amount and a larger, later (LL) fixed amount. The bundle size (i.e., number of consequences) will be manipulated across conditions, where a single choice will produce either 1 (control), 3, or 9 consequences over time (ascending/descending order counterbalanced). The delay to the first LL amount in each condition, as well as the intervals between all additional SS and LL amounts (where applicable), will be set to individual participants' ED50 values from Step 1 to control for differences in discounting of gains and losses.

Conditions

• Cigarette Smoking

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Bundle-size 1	In this condition, each choice in the adjusting-amount task produces only a single consequence (e.g., lose $900 in 1 year).
BEHAVIORAL	Bundle-size 3	In this condition, each choice in the adjusting-amount task produce a series of three consequences over time. o hold total amount constant across conditions, the $900 available in the bundle-size 1 condition will be distributed equally across all consequences in the series. (e.g., lose $300 in 1 year, lose $300 in 2 years, lose $300 in 3 years).
BEHAVIORAL	Bundle-size 9	In this condition, each choice in the adjusting-amount task produce a series of nine consequences over time. To hold total amount constant across conditions, the $900 available in the bundle-size 1 condition will be distributed equally across all consequences in the series. (e.g., lose $100 in 1 year, lose $100 in 2 years, lose $100 in 3 years...lose $100 in 9 years).

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-07-26
• Primary completion: 2021-08-12
• Completion: 2021-08-12
• First posted: 2021-11-08
• Last updated: 2025-01-24

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States