Delay Discounting Test — Free Now-vs-Later Reward Choice & Patience Task

The delay discounting test measures how much you devalue (discount) future rewards by asking you to choose between a smaller amount now and a larger amount later. The later reward is fixed at a hypothetical 100,000 KRW, and the waiting period is one of four: 1 week (7 days), 1 month (30 days), 6 months (180 days), or 1 year (365 days). For each delay, the immediate amount starts at 50,000 and narrows over six steps: choosing now brings a smaller offer next time, choosing later a larger one. Across 24 choices this locates your indifference point for each delay, the immediate amount that feels equal in value to the later 100,000.

Everyone discounts future rewards to some degree, but how steeply varies widely. Steep discounters lean toward present-oriented choices drawn by immediate gains; shallow discounters are more willing to wait, making future-oriented choices. This tendency has been studied extensively in behavioral economics and psychology in relation to impulsivity, self-regulation, saving, and health behavior. Mazur's hyperbolic discounting model and the work of Rachlin and colleagues are the classic references, and the indifference-point adjustment procedure used here follows those experimental methods.

This test is Soundary's own implementation inspired by that experimental paradigm; it does not use a standardized instrument such as Kirby's Monetary Choice Questionnaire (MCQ) or its norms. The amounts are hypothetical and never paid out, and the test takes about two minutes.

The headline result is your patience index (0 to 100). The four indifference points are expressed as a fraction of 100,000, plotted against delay on a 0 to 1 year axis, and the area under the curve (AUC, 0 to 1) is multiplied by 100. If waiting barely reduces the value for you, the curve stays high, the area is large, and the score is high. A score of 60 or more is labeled future-oriented and patient, 40 to 59 balanced, and under 40 present-oriented; the percentage of the 24 choices in which you chose later is shown as well.

The detailed results show the discount rate k, the AUC, your indifference point for each delay, and the discounting curve. k comes from the hyperbolic model V = A divided by (1 + k times days): for each delay it is computed as (100,000 divided by the indifference point, minus 1) divided by days, and the median of the four values is taken. A larger k means each day of waiting costs you more, that is, steeper discounting. For example, if 100,000 in a year feels equal to 50,000 now, k is 1 divided by 365, about 0.0027. Each indifference point is the midpoint of the range remaining after six adjustments, bounded between 500 and 99,500.

The AUC starts at (0 days, 1.0), joins the indifference-point fractions at 7, 30, 180, and 365 days with trapezoids, and is normalized to one year. The 60 and 40 boundaries here and the gauge showing your position relative to other users are reference values chosen by Soundary, not standardized norms. Delay discounting is known to depend on the size of the reward (larger amounts are discounted less), so results based on 100,000 may differ from choices involving other amounts.

Delay discounting is considered a fairly stable trait, but it also moves with circumstances. Pressing financial need, stress or fatigue, alcohol, and mood state tend to increase now choices, and many studies report steeper discounting in groups with addiction-related behaviors such as smoking, drinking, and gambling. Discounting also tends to flatten with age. On the other hand, being aware that the money is hypothetical can lead to careless choices that blur the result, so it is best to answer as if the money were real.

The result is not good or bad; it is one facet of your attitude toward time. If you came out present-oriented, habits such as writing down what a big decision means for your future self, and mechanisms that automate delayed-reward activities like saving and exercise (automatic transfers, fixed times), are known to help. If you are future-oriented, it may be worth asking whether you are postponing present enjoyment too much. Viewed alongside the Iowa Gambling Task, it shows two axes of decision making together: learning from losses and valuing the future.

This test is a self-check and is not a diagnosis of impulsivity or any condition. Regardless of your result, if immediate gratification keeps leading to outcomes you do not want, such as debt, binge eating, drinking, or gambling, and it feels hard to manage on your own, we encourage you to consult a psychiatrist.