Mediated Wisdom of Experience Revisited: Delay Discounting, Acceptance of Death, and Closeness to Future Self

Abstract

This experiment, using excerpts from three Hollywood films, indicates that eudaimonic (meaningful) narratives increase willingness to accept delayed rewards (i.e., reduce delay discounting) and acceptance of death, mediated by the effect of eudaimonic narratives on perceived closeness to future self. Our findings provide support for the argument, and its derivation from socio-emotional selectivity theory, that the vicarious experience of life’s transience and sources of meaning in eudaimonic narratives has an impact parallel to that of lived experience, which we call the mediated wisdom of experience. We did not find support for proposed interactions with a written reflection exercise.