Delay Discounting and Temporal Focus in British and Finnish Populations, 2024

General population survey data collected as part of the ESRC project "Politicians' temporal focus". The surveys covered individuals in the United Kingdom (two waves) and Finland (one wave). Individuals were given a delay discounting task asking whether they wished their constituency or area to receive a "smaller, sooner" grant or a "larger, later" grant. Individuals were also asked to complete Shipp's Temporal Focus scale.

The delay discounting task is based on Kirby and Maraković, except that the amounts were increased to make the amounts for each area more realistic. The size of the grants was determined first in pounds sterling, and then converted to approximately similar amounts in euros for the Finnish survey.

The purpose of this data collection was to benchmark levels of temporal discounting in the general population in order to compare it to levels of temporal discounting amongst MPs, as measured in a separate survey not part of this deposit.