Immediate rewards activate the hot, automatic, reflexive, unconscious limbic system, which pays little attention to delayed consequences. It wants what it wants immediately and steeply reduces or “discounts” the value of any rewards that are delayed.8 It is driven by the sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch of the object of desire, whether it’s marshmallows that make preschoolers ring the bell, irresistible fudge cake on the dessert platter, or the Siren songs that drowned sailors in an ancient myth.
