Sad participants generated impatient thoughts significantly earlier (mean SMRD = .47, median SMRD = 1) than did neutral participants (mean SMRD = .03, median SMRD = 0; z = 2.65, p < .01) and disgusted participants (mean SMRD = .005, median SMRD = 0; z = 2.48, p < .05).

we hypothesized that sadness would make people more likely to first generate reasons favoring the earlier rather than the later reward, and that they would therefore generate more such reasons than sad or neutral-state participants; as a result, their behavior would be consistent with the notion that sad people seek self-enhancement by acquiring... See more

Even though the induced sadness was incidental to these decisions, it actually increased preference for immediate rewards (compared with neutral emotion), whereas disgust did not.

. Finally, Clark and Isen’s (1982) theory on mood-repair motives—the idea that people engage in certain behaviors, such as donating to charity, in order to relieve negative feelings—may hold implications regarding whether sad individuals want a smaller reward immediately or a larger reward later on (Cialdini, Darby, & Vincent, 1973). If that theory... See more

Indeed, sadness has been shown to trigger a generalized devaluation of the self (Cryder, Lerner, Gross, & Dahl, 2008; Lerner et al., 2004), which creates an implicit desire to enhance what James (1890) called the “material self” (p. 292). Several studies examining the endowment effect have found that sad decision makers pay a higher buying price... See more

sadness may increase discounting by intensifying the salience of the current self.

a case can be made for a myopic-misery hypothesis , according to which sadness should increase impatience because sadness, arising from a sense of loss, triggers an implicit goal of reward replacement (Lerner, Small, & Loewenstein, 2004). Raghunathan and Pham (1999) found, for example, that sad individuals are biased toward high-reward, high-risk... See more

These results show that myopic misery is a robust and potentially harmful phenomenon.

sadness increases impatience and creates a myopic focus on obtaining money immediately instead of later.