Steeper delay and probability discounting of potentially real versus hypothetical cigarettes (but not money) among smokers

• We compared patterns of delay and probability discounting for hypothetical and potentially real money and cigarettes in adult smokers.
• Understanding differences in similarities between discounting for hypothetical and real monetary and non-monetary outcomes has important methodological ramifications for researchers.
• Smokers discounted the value of potentially real and hypothetical money similarly.
• Smokers discounted the value of potentially real cigarettes at a steeper rate than hypothetical cigarettes.

There is a strong relationship between drug use and the tendency to discount the value of outcomes as a function of their delay and probability. Most discounting researchers use hypothetical monetary outcomes to establish discounting patterns among human subjects, who tend to discount the value of hypothetical money and real money similarily. However, no research to date has examined whether hypothetical non-monetary outcomes are discounted similarly to real non-monetary outcomes. In this study, smokers were assigned randomly to complete delay and probability discounting tasks for money and cigarettes that were either potentially real (n = 33) or hypothetical (n = 31). Consistent with previous research, smokers discounted the value of hypothetical and potentially real money similarly. However, smokers evidenced steeper rates of discounting for potentially real cigarettes in both delay and probability discounting. These findings suggest domain-specific discounting patterns in which potentially real and hypothetical outcomes may be synonymous in the context of monetary outcomes, but not in the context of non-monetary outcomes.