Delay discounting is the perceived decline in the value of an object when it is received at a later date, as opposed to receiving it in the present.

Delay discounting focuses on monetary rewards and it’s a simplified version of something you may have heard of before: delayed gratification.

In the Frontiers in Psychology study, participants were offered a small sum of money to be collected immediately, or a larger sum later ($500 now or an additional $1,000 offered at six increasing time intervals, bringing the total to $6500 at one year).