If so, then do you think it's the only factor? What other factors do you think may be involved in whether a given individual has low or high tme preference?
I think it's biological, but then my mom's family would indicate otherwise because my grandparents didn't have high time preference but two of their 5 kids do (one of those two got all their savings).
My dad's whole family has super low time preference, however. Also, time preference varies based upon ethnicity so that's really the main reason I think it's heritable.
I would say it involves all kinds of different factors. In times of low interest rates and even moderate inflation the propensity to consume now rather than later is rewarded so high time preference behavior is reinforced. Hell the government practically wants us to be a mass consumer culture and we learn in government run schools that savings are bad and if you are patriotic you should go out and spend to boost the economy. I'm not saying all consumer credit is evil but the debt culture we live in is corrupting and one of these things that is rotting away the very foundations of society. (An economy grows from savings and investment not spending)
Certainly biological factors pay a role but its probably not even the biggest factor