The Effects of Financial Education on Impulsive Decision Making

Delay discounting, as a behavioral measure of impulsive choice, is strongly related to substance abuse and other risky behaviors. Therefore, effective techniques that alter delay discounting are of great interest. We explored the ability of a semester long financial education course to change delay...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2016-07, Vol.11 (7), p.e0159561
Main Authors: DeHart, William B, Friedel, Jonathan E, Lown, Jean M, Odum, Amy L
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alcohol
Analysis
Area Under Curve
Behavior
Biology and Life Sciences
Decision Making
Delay
Discount rates
Drug abuse
Drug tolerance
Economics
Education
Female
Financial management
Humans
Impulsive Behavior
Impulsivity
Male
Medicine and Health Sciences
Memory
Models, Theoretical
Opportunity costs
People and Places
Personality
Preferences
Psychiatry
Psychology
Social Sciences
Studies
Study and teaching
Young Adult
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Summary:Delay discounting, as a behavioral measure of impulsive choice, is strongly related to substance abuse and other risky behaviors. Therefore, effective techniques that alter delay discounting are of great interest. We explored the ability of a semester long financial education course to change delay discounting. Participants were recruited from a financial education course (n = 237) and an abnormal psychology course (n = 80). Both groups completed a delay-discounting task for $100 during the first two weeks (Time 1) of the semester as well as during the last two weeks (Time 2) of the semester. Participants also completed a personality inventory and financial risk tolerance scale both times and a delay-discounting task for $1,000 during Time 2. Delay discounting decreased in the financial education group at the end of the semester whereas there was no change in delay discounting in the abnormal psychology group. Financial education may be an effective method for reducing delay discounting.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0159561