The Beauty of the Zero: Replications and Extensions of the Hidden-Zero Effect in Delay Discounting Tasks. Issue 4 (May 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Dang, Junhua; Liu, Xiaoping; Xiao, Shanshan; Mao, Lihua; Chan, Ka Tung; Li, Chaoyu; Lin, Meihan; Liu, Zanzan; Luo, Yanran; Sun, Yumingzi; Wu, Yu-Hsin; Schiöth, Helgi B.
• Is Part Of: Social psychological & personality science. Volume 12:Issue 4(2021)
• Page Start: 544
• Page End: 549
• Publication Date: 2021-05
• Subjects: self-control -- delay discounting -- hidden-zero -- preregistration; Personality -- Periodicals; Social psychology -- Periodicals; Electronic journals; 155.2
• DOI: 10.1177/1948550620929454
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1948-5506

Abstract

Unlike the presentation format in a typical delay discounting task (e.g., "Would you prefer [A] US$4.3 today OR [B] US$7.5 in 22 days?"), Magen et al. inserted a zero to each alternative (e.g., "Would you prefer [A] US$4.3 today and US$0 in 22 days OR [B] US$0 today and US$7.5 in 22 days?") and found this manipulation effectively reduced delay discounting ( d = .84), which was referred to as the hidden-zero effect. Study 1 was a direct replication of this effect. In Study 2, we tested whether the explicit-zero format could buffer against the detrimental effect of exposure to sexy cues on delay discounting. In Study 3, we explored the mechanism underlying the hidden-zero effect. Taken together, the hidden-zero effect was consistently found across all studies ( N = 2, 440) and our internal meta-analysis yielded a medium to large effect size ( d = .52).