Implicit Measurement of Religiosity, Gender, and Individual Time Preferences, A laboratory Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of Islamic religiosity on intertemporal preferences using the method of laboratory economics. This method is the most important and valid method for estimating individual time preferences. In order to measure religiosity, for the first time in Iran, the method of implicit measurement was used in which there is no possibility of pretending and deviating the answers. The fitting of the hyperbolic function on the data on intertemporal preferences showed that this type of discount has a good fit and is consistent with previous research. In order to control the personality variable, a valid HEXACO questionnaire was used. The gender of the subjects was also controlled. The subjects were 110 students of Allameh Tabatabai University, Shahid Beheshti University and Payame Noor University. Ordinary least squares regression method was used to measure the effect of religiosity on intertemporal preferences. The results showed that religiosity has a negative and significant effect on the discount rate. analysis of covariance showed different discount rates for men and women. Also, the gender of the subjects had a significant effect on the discount rate, so that women showed more patient behavior than men.