Threat appeals reduce impulsive decision making associated with texting while driving: A behavioral economic approach

The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of threat appeals in influencing impulsive decision making associated with texting while driving. The participants in the treatment group were exposed to a threatening message about the danger of texting while driving, whereas...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2019-03, Vol.14 (3), p.e0213453-e0213453
Main Authors: Hayashi, Yusuke, Foreman, Anne M, Friedel, Jonathan E, Wirth, Oliver
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
Adult
Analysis
Attitude
Automobile Driving - psychology
Automobile Driving - statistics & numerical data
Biology and Life Sciences
Decision making
Decision Making - physiology
Delay Discounting - physiology
Economics, Behavioral - statistics & numerical data
Emotions - physiology
Female
Humans
Impulsive Behavior - physiology
Intention
Law Enforcement - methods
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Public health
Research and Analysis Methods
Risk-Taking
Social Sciences
Surveys and Questionnaires
Text Messaging - statistics & numerical data
Texting while driving
Young Adult
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The primary purpose of the present study was to examine the effectiveness of threat appeals in influencing impulsive decision making associated with texting while driving. The participants in the treatment group were exposed to a threatening message about the danger of texting while driving, whereas those in the control group were exposed to a non-threatening message. Following the exposure to either message, the participants completed a delay-discounting task that assessed the degree of impulsive decision making in a hypothetical texting-while-driving scenario. A comparison between the groups revealed that the threat appeals reduced the degree of impulsive decision making associated with texting while driving. In addition, the threat appeals led to greater anticipated regret from texting while driving, less favorable attitudes toward texting while driving, and decreased intentions to text while driving in the future in the treatment group. These results suggest that video-based threat appeals are promising intervention strategies for the public health challenge of texting while driving. Implications from the behavioral economic perspective are discussed.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0213453