Discounting

Discounting is placing less value on something because of its distance in time, space, or social connection. Humans are described in both papers as innate temporal, spatial and social discounters — a strategy that was once wholly adaptive, prioritising the here-and-now and close relatives and friends, for individuals living in small, stable social groups within familiar home ranges. Discounting is central to how the Neurobiological/Fitness Gap operates: it is precisely what lets a distant fitness-relevant consequence fail to register against an immediate neurobiological payoff.

Temporal discounting

Temporal discounting is not linear: the steepest drop in perceived value occurs closest to the present, so the difference between now and tomorrow feels more significant than the difference between ten and eleven years from now. This means immediate consequences exert a disproportionate pull on behaviour, making motivation for change unlikely in response to long-term ecological threats, even existential ones.

Spatial and social discounting

Spatial discounting occurs when consequences in other countries or regions are discounted relative to local ones. Social discounting occurs when consequences affect people outside one's immediate social group. The paper's worked example is using an AI large language model while knowing its water and energy footprint: the people affected aren't in the user's social group (social discounting), the places affected aren't physically nearby (spatial discounting), and the impacts may be distant in time (temporal discounting) — so these discounted consequences have far less influence on behaviour than the immediate, gratifying neurobiological payoff of using the tool.

See also

Neurobiological/Fitness Gap · Consequences · Evolved Impulses