Cash may convince driving teens to stay off mobiles

Getting teens to put down their phones when they get behind the wheel is no easy task, but a small study suggests that parents may have more luck when they offer cash rewards. Researchers examined data from an online survey of 152 teens who owned smartphones and admitted to texting and driving. Even though they confessed to this dangerous habit, 90 percent said they were willing to give up reading texts while driving, 95 percent could consider no longer sending texts and 99 percent said they might stay off social media. The trick that would make many commit to these promises wasn’t a parent threatening to take away the keys. It was the promise of cash prizes, and as little as $ 5 a week looked like enough to make a difference. “Just telling your teen to stop texting while driving is not going to work, particularly for those who do it a lot,” said lead study author M. Kit Delgado of the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. All of the teens surveyed were 16 to 17 years old, fairly inexperienced drivers and very attached to their smartphones. They were much more willing to consider giving up texting in the car than they were willing to entertain the thought of driving without the music apps. Only 59 percent would give up Google Maps and just 43 percent would drive without using phone. Even though the cash rewards researchers tested were all valued around $ 250 a year, not all of the prizes were equally appealing to teens. Individual prizes were the most popular — three of four teens said they would reduce texting while driving if they could earn $ 5 in cash or gift cards