impulsivity
nounEtymology From impulsive + -ity.
1
Usually The quality of being impulsive, impulsiveness; inclination to act on impulse rather than thought.
- In reliable environments, waiting to eat a second marshmallow is likely to be beneficial. However, in environments in which rewards are uncertain, such as when experimenters are unreliable, eating the single marshmallow right away may be beneficial. Thus, impulsivity can be understood as an adaptive response to the contingencies present in an unstable environment rather than a moral failure in which animalistic drives overwhelm human rationality.2020, Joseph Cesario, David J. Johnson, Heather L. Eisthen, “Your Brain Is Not an Onion With a Tiny Reptile Inside”, in Current Directions in Psychological Science, volume 29, number 3:
- Related terms
- impulse, impulsive, impulsively, impulsiveness