How social exclusion shapes intertemporal choice: self-control resources as the central bridge

Intertemporal decision-making, i.e., choosing between immediate and delayed rewards is crucial for social functioning, yet social exclusion often biases individuals toward short-term gains. However, it remains unclear which psychological processes most proximally link exclusion to myopic intertemporal choice. Across two complementary experiments, we used psychological network analysis to examine the structural role of self-control resources (SCR) relative to trait self-control, impulsivity, and affect. In Experiment 1 (N = 144), participants reported chronic social exclusion, SCR, trait self-control, impulsivity (BIS subscales), positive and negative affect, and completed a monetary intertemporal choice task. In Experiment 2 (N = 97), we manipulated acute exclusion using the Cyberball paradigm and assessed perceived exclusion alongside the same measures and task. Across both experiments, higher social exclusion was reliably associated with higher degree of temporal discounting, whereas higher SCR was associated with more patient intertemporal choices. Network analyses showed that exclusion and SCR were the only variables that maintained unique connections to the discounting parameter, and SCR emerged as the strongest connector between exclusion and discounting, with impulsivity, trait self control, and affect occupying more peripheral positions. Together, these findings suggest that momentary self control resources form the primary psychological pathway through which social exclusion biases intertemporal decision-making.