Table 2 Prevalence of behavioral economic biases of present bias, information salience, overoptimism, and loss aversion in U.S. young adults, aged 18–24 years, by gender and total (N = 43)
Behavioral economic bias | Gender | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
Male | Female | ||
Number of participants | 15 | 28 | 43 |
Present bias | |||
Prefers $1000 USD tomorrow versus $3000 USD in 1 year | |||
Yes | 60% | 54% | 56% |
No | 40% | 46% | 44% |
Prefers to spend $500 rather than save $500 | |||
Yes | 53% | 50% | 51% |
No | 47% | 50% | 49% |
Prefers to have condomless sex than wait for condom | |||
Yes | 33% | 25% | 28% |
No | 67% | 75% | 72% |
Information salience | |||
Knows someone living with HIV | |||
Yes | 27% | 39% | 35% |
No | 73% | 61% | 65% |
Knows someone who has died of AIDSa | |||
Yes | 27% | 29% | 28% |
No | 67% | 71% | 70% |
Knows someone who has had a medical complication due to HIV/AIDSa | |||
Yes | 13% | 32% | 26% |
No | 80% | 64% | 70% |
Knows someone who has taken an HIV test | |||
Yes | 80% | 61% | 67% |
No | 20% | 39% | 33% |
Often or always thinks about HIV prevention | |||
Yes | 67% | 79% | 74% |
No | 33% | 21% | 26% |
Overoptimism | |||
Planned to use condom but found it difficult to stick to decisiona | |||
Yes | 33% | 39% | 37% |
No | 60% | 60% | 60% |
Planned to get tested for HIV but found it difficult to stick to decisiona | |||
Yes | 13% | 7% | 9% |
No | 80% | 93% | 88% |
Planned to talk to partners about HIV but difficult to stick to decision | |||
Yes | 27% | 14% | 19% |
No | 73% | 86% | 81% |
Reported over-optimism for ≥ 1 item | |||
Yes | 47% | 46% | 47% |
No | 53% | 54% | 53% |
Loss aversion | |||
Loss encountered from HIV + test result (mean score, ± SD) | 9.7 (± 1.3) | 9.2 (± 2.1) | 9.4 (± 1.9) |