Date of Award


Degree Name

Master of Science


Behavior Analysis and Therapy

First Advisor

Dixon, Mark


The present study used temporal and probability discounting procedures to characterize choice behaviors regarding hypothetical sexual risk taking and hypothetical monetary outcomes. Participants were presented with probability discounting choices regarding hypothetical sexual outcomes with cheating behavior regarding their preferred quality of sex with a significant or non-significant other; getting caught cheating was varied across conditions. Forty-eight undergraduate and graduate students participated in the current study. The data showed that there was no significance between cheaters (m=.261, sd= .291) and non-cheaters (m= .341, sd= .313) when discounting monetary rewards. The data depicting probability discounting showed significance among cheaters (m=.295, sd=.296) and non-cheaters (m=.081, sd=.164) suggesting that cheaters discount quality of sex at a steeper rate than non-cheaters. The relationship between monetary rewards and sexual risk taking is a relatively untapped area of research with few studies having investigated the relationship.



