Delay Discounting, Dating Applications, and Risky Sexual Behavior: An Exploratory Study

Research on delay discounting and sex suggests that discounting measures correlate to risky sexual behavior. Dating applications are a growing trend in sexual partner seeking and dating culture, but the relationship between dating applications, delay discounting, and risky sexual behavior is relatively unknown. The present study sought to examine the relationship among reported dating application use, delay discounting, and risky sexual behavior. Participants completed a demographic questionnaire that included sexual history and dating-app status, a sexual risk survey, and a delay discounting task involving minutes of hypothetical sexual activity. Sexual discounting was significantly correlated with measures of sexual risk. The strength in correlation was higher for those using dating applications and nonexistent in those not using dating applications. No significant deferences existed between dating application users and abstainers for sexual risk or sexual discounting. The implications regarding safe sex practices are discussed. Keywords Delay discounting * Sexual discounting * Behavioral economics * Online dating * Risky sexual behavior
Reinforcement pathology attempts to understand suboptimal choice in domains of health (Bickel et al., 2017; Jarmolowicz et al., 2016) and suggests that there is dysregulation for some individuals in the [...]