Browsing by Subject "Drinking and driving"

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    Applying Bayesian Cognitive Models to Decisions to Drive after Drinking
    (Wiley, 2021) McCarthy, Denis M.; McCarty, Kayleigh N.; Hatz, Laura E.; Prestigiacomo, Christiana J.; Park, Sanghyuk; Davis-Stober, Clintin P.; Psychology, School of Science
    Background and aims: Despite widespread negative perceptions, the prevalence of alcohol-impaired driving (AID) in the United States remains unacceptably high. This study used a novel decision task to evaluate whether individuals considered both ride service cost and alcohol consumption level when deciding whether or not to drive, and whether the resulting strategy was associated with engagement in AID. Design: A two-sample study, where sample 1 developed a novel AID decision task to classify participants by decision strategy. Sample 2 was used to cross-validate the task and examine whether decision strategy classifications were predictive of prior reported AID behavior. Setting: A laboratory setting at the University of Missouri, USA. Participants: Sample 1 included 38 student participants from introductory psychology classes at the University of Missouri. Sample 2 included 67 young adult participants recruited from the local community. Measurements: We developed a decision task that presented hypothetical drinking scenarios that varied in quantity of alcohol consumption (one to six drinks) and the cost of a ride service ($5-25). We applied a Bayesian computational model to classify choices as consistent with either: integrating both ride cost and consumption level (compensatory) or considering only consumption level (non-compensatory) when making hypothetical AID decisions. In sample 2, we assessed established AID risk factors (sex, recent alcohol consumption, perceived safe limit) and recent (past 3 months) engagement in AID. Findings: In sample 1, the majority of participants were classified as using decision strategies consistent with either a compensatory or non-compensatory process. Results from sample 2 replicated the overall classification rate and demonstrated that participants who used a compensatory strategy were more likely to report recent AID, even after accounting for study covariates. Conclusions: In a hypothetical alcohol-impaired driving (AID) decision task, individuals who considered both consumption level and ride service cost were more likely to report recent AID than those who made decisions based entirely on consumption level.
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    Drinking and driving: a pilot study of subjective norms, attitudes and behaviors of German and American students
    (2014-11-13) Slagle, Bianca Annaliese; Goering, Elizabeth M.; Rhodes, Nancy; Shin, YoungJu
    Drinking and driving is increasingly becoming a detrimental behavior, especially amongst college-aged students in the U.S. and other countries. Additionally, research shows that college-age students in the U.S. are more likely to drink and drive, than college-age students in Germany. Fishbein and Ajzen’s Theory of Reasoned Action asserts that subjective norms and attitudes signify behavioral intentions. In order to test the TRA and understand the drinking and driving differences and similarities in the U.S. and Germany, focus groups of German and American college-age students were conducted to discuss subjective norms and attitudes surrounding drinking and driving behaviors, followed up by an electronic pilot study survey regarding same. The data collected illustrated that college-age drinking and driving is occurs more frequently in the U.S., and that American and German students differ in their attitudes and subjective norms surrounding drinking and driving. Future research would benefit the continued use and circulation of the electronic surveys for larger cross-cultural samples of college-age students to more effectively and quantitatively assess actual drinking and driving behaviors as it relates to subjective norms and attitudes, as suggested in the TRA.