Citation

Hayashi Y, Fessler HJ, Friedel JE, Foreman AM, Wirth O. J. Exp. Anal. Behav. 2018; 110(2): 229-242.

Affiliation

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Wiley-Blackwell)

DOI

10.1002/jeab.460

PMID

30028007

Abstract

A sample of 109 college students completed a survey to assess how frequently they send or read text messages while driving. In a novel discounting task with a hypothetical scenario in which participants receive a text message while driving, they rated the likelihood of replying to a text message immediately versus waiting to reply until arriving at a destination. The scenario presented several delays to a destination and probabilities of a motor vehicle crash. The likelihood of waiting to reply decreased as a function of both the delay until the destination and the probability of a motor vehicle crash. Self-reported higher frequencies of texting while driving were associated with greater rates of both delay and probability discounting. The degree of delay discounting was altered as a function of the probability of a motor vehicle crash and vice versa. These results suggest that both delay and probability discounting are important underlying mechanisms of drivers' decision to text while driving.

© 2018 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.

Language: en

Keywords

college students; delay discounting; impulsivity; probability discounting; texting while driving; translational science