Impulsivity
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The quality of being impulsive, impulsiveness; inclination to act on impulse rather than thought. uncountable, usually
"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."
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"Abusing drugs can lead to impulsivity and aggression."
Etymology
From impulsive + -ity.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.