This thesis establishes the associations between a set of core measures: impatience, impulsivity and subjective craving strength and the real-life drug behaviours of current and former frequent cannabis users, using a quasi-hyperbolic model. The analysis is based on field data collected on the website Reddit, which includes detailed information on cannabis user’s purchasing habits, consumption habits, visceral state and choice environment. The analysis finds that on average current cannabis users display higher levels of impatience than former cannabis users, while higher impulsivity is predictive of higher frequency of use for both current and former users. Craving strength, a form of subjective experience and common measure for problematic cannabis use, is strongly associated with both impatience and impulsivity toward cannabis. The results also indicate that residing in a criminalised choice environment, as well as visceral influences and visual cues present at the time a decision is made, systematically influence the core measures of interest. The combined exploration of impulsivity, impatience, subjective experiences and choice environment reveal that choice architecture and by definition choice architects influence the level of impatience and impulsivity associated with real life drug behaviours. This highlights that decision utility, experienced and remembered utility, visceral influences and choice environment are important to the study of self-defeating behaviours, which involve immediate benefits and delayed costs.

C. Li
hdl.handle.net/2105/49492
Business Economics
Erasmus School of Economics

C.M. Jacob. (2019, November 8). The influence of choice environment on impatience, impulsivity and cravings: A study of the decision to use cannabis faced by frequent cannabis users. Business Economics. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2105/49492