The Influence of Facial Attractiveness on Intertemporal Decision-Making

Intertemporal choice problems are common in daily life, and facial attractiveness—as a salient perceptual cue—often influences decision-making behavior. This study investigates how advisors’ facial attractiveness affects decision-makers’ choices in gain and loss contexts during intertemporal decision-making. Key findings reveal: (1) Choice preference: Significant main effects of facial attractiveness and gain-loss context, plus an interaction effect. High-attractiveness advisors increased preference for “Small-Sooner” (SS) options, while low attractiveness reduced SS choices. Loss contexts generally promoted more SS preferences than gain contexts. Crucially, in gain contexts (but not loss contexts), high-attractiveness advisors significantly increased SS choices compared to low-attractiveness advisors. This suggests facial attractiveness modulates intertemporal choices, potentially by enhancing emotional bias toward immediate rewards. (2) Response time: Significant main effects of facial attractiveness and context. Decision-makers responded slower to high-attractiveness advisors and in gain (vs. loss) contexts, implying deeper cognitive processing for attractive stimuli or reward-related deliberation. These results demonstrate that facial attractiveness influences intertemporal decisions through dual pathways—emotional bias (preference) and cognitive load (response time)—with context-dependent effects.