Texting while driving as impulsive choice: A behavioral economic analysis

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to examine the utility of a behavioral economic analysis to investigate the role of delay discounting in texting while driving. A sample of 147 college students completed a survey to assess how frequently they send and read text messages while driving. Based on this information, students were assigned to one of two groups: 19 students who frequently text while driving and 19 matched-control students who infrequently text while driving but were similar in gender, age, years of education, and years driving. The groups were compared on the extent to which they discounted, or devalued, delayed hypothetical monetary rewards using a delay-discounting task. In this task, students made repeated choices between $1000 available after a delay (ranging from 1 week to 10 years) and an equal or lesser amount of money available immediately. The results show that the students who frequently text while driving discounted delayed rewards at a greater rate than the matched control students. The study supports the conclusions that texting while driving is fundamentally an impulsive choice made by drivers, and that a behavioral economic approach may be a useful research tool for investigating the decision-making processes underlying risky behaviors.

Keywords: Behavioral economics; Choice; College students; Decision making; Delay discounting; Impulsivity; Texting while driving.

Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Figures

Fig. 1

Subjective value of hypothetical monetary rewards as a function of delay to the reward for students who frequently text while driving (TWD, closed circles) and students who infrequently text while driving (Non-TWD, open squares). Group medians are plotted with the hyperbolic discounting function from Eq. (1).

Fig. 2

Mean natural log-transformed k values for TWD and Non-TWD groups. The error bars represent the standard error of the mean.

Fig. 3

Mean area under the curve (AUC) for TWD and Non-TWD groups. The error bars represent the standard error of the mean.

Fig. 4

Hypothetical scenarios for Individuals 1 and 2 with different rates of delay discounting. In both panels, Time A depicts the time associated with an opportunity to receive a smaller-sooner reward (white bar), and Time B depicts the time associated with an opportunity to receive a larger-later reward (black bar). Hypothetical delay-discounting functions are shown for the smaller-sooner reward (dashed line) and the larger-later reward (solid line). At Time C, opportunities to receive either reward is temporally remote, and both individuals would place a greater value on the larger-later reward. At Time D, Individual 1 still places a greater value on the larger-later reward, whereas Individual 2 after a preference reversal places a greater value on the smaller-sooner reward.