The allure of a beeping, buzzing phone seems to trump common sense, at least when it comes to texting and driving.

When AT&T surveyed drivers who text daily (not just when in the car), they found 82 percent knew it was dangerous, but 74 percent fessed up to doing it anyway. Why? The main reason cited was a desire to stay connected with family and friends, followed by "it is simply a habit," and a belief that "I can easily do several things at once, even while driving."

The company released the survey Wednesday, the same day it launched the DriveMode app for iPhones. The free app turns on automatically when drivers exceed 15 mph, silencing incoming messages and sending an automatic reply to let the sender know the phone's owner is driving. It was previously only available for Android and Blackberry.

The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction partnered with AT&T for the survey of 1,004 adults. The center's founder, David Greenfield, an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at The University of Connecticut School of Medicine, pointed to dopamine as the source of our cell phone compulsions.

"We compulsively check our phones because every time we get an update through text, email or social media, we experience an elevation of dopamine, which is a neurochemical in the brain that makes us feel happy," Greenfield said. "If that desire for a dopamine fix leads us to check our phones while we're driving, a simple text can turn deadly."

The dangers of texting while driving were in the news locally last week when a 17-year-old driver was charged with a felony for allegedly checking a text message and causing a crash in Eagan that injured a 15-month-old boy.

Humphrey, Katie, Star Tribune

The survey and DriveMode app are part of AT&T's larger It Can Wait campaign against texting while driving. The DriveMode app for Android and Blackberry has been downloaded 1.8 million times, according to AT&T.

On the upside, people who reported taking steps to stop texting while driving felt good about it.