Future-minded make better health decisions

MANHATTAN, Kan., Dec. 31 (UPI) -- People who think in the long term tend to make more positive health decisions, whether it's how much to drink or what to eat, U.S. psychologists suggest.

"If you are more willing to pick later, larger rewards rather than taking the immediate payoff, you are more future-minded than present-minded," study leader James Daugherty, a doctoral student at Kansas State University, says in a statement. "You're more likely to exercise and less likely to smoke and drink."

Professor Gary Brase, Daugherty and colleagues conducted two surveys of 19-year-olds. Subjects who gave future-minded answers in the initial survey were more likely to report healthy behaviors in the latter survey.

"There is a lot of potential for helping people make better health decisions," Brase says. "People who tend to have a very present-minded perspective will have an easier time following through with a change if they can see rewards sooner."

Brase suggests weight loss clinicians determine a client's time perspective to determine the more effective way of helping the client reach his or her weight loss goal.

The findings were presented at the Society for Judgment and Decision Making conference in Boston and are scheduled to be published in the January issue of the journal Personality and Individual Differences.