Why do professional athletes have different time preferences than non-athletes?

The objective of this paper is to measure and compare the subjective time discounting of professional athletes and nonathletes. by using a questionnaire,we found higher subjective discounting for professional athletes than for non-athletes. we also found that the professional athletes' win-orientation positively affected their present preferences. on the other hand,professional athletes' play- orientation,which reflects their attitude towards the game itself,negatively affected their present preferences. no such effects were found in non-athletes. we argue that the win-at-all-costs competitive approach that leads athletes to sacrifice everything in order to win may cause (or reflect) their higher preference for the present.