Assessing the impact of the 2015 introduction of increased penalties and enhanced public awareness and enforcement activities on texting while driving among adults in Ontario, Canada

Wickens, Christine M.; Ialomiteanu, Anca; Cook, Steven; Hamilton, Hayley; Haya, Maryam; Ma, Tracey; Mann, Robert E.; Manson, Heather; McDonald, André J.

doi:10.1080/15389588.2020.1731922

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…The study results are also based on self-report, which may be subject to recall bias or social desirability bias. Future research may consider requesting participant consent to access alternative data sources, such as insurance records (Wickens et al, 2020).…”

Section: Limitations and Future Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of construal fit in threat appeal to persuade young drivers not to text while driving

Lim

Lin

Chung

et al. 2021

JSOCM

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Purpose This paper aims to investigate the effect of matching social distance and the concrete/abstract visual presentation of the threats of distracted driving in campaign design. Design/methodology/approach This study conducts a series of 2 (social distance frame: close vs distant) × 2 (visual rhetoric style: literal vs metaphorical) online experiments on the perspective of the construal level theory. Findings This study identified that a fit between social distance and visual rhetoric style of the threat enhances the effect of a social marketing campaign targeting young adults. A message framed in terms of socially proximal entities shows a favorable impact on young drivers’ threat perception and behavioral intention when the visual rhetoric depicts the threats of texting while driving more concrete. On the other hand, more distant social entities in the message show a better impact when the threats are visualized in metaphor. Originality/value This paper enhances the understanding of a threat appeal message design by adding empirical evidence of matching visual rhetoric style and social distance. The findings provide theoretical and practical implications for social marketing campaigns, regarding the strategic tailoring of messages, particularly in public service announcements that discourage texting while driving on young adults.

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Section: Limitations and Future Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of construal fit in threat appeal to persuade young drivers not to text while driving

Lim

Lin

Chung

et al. 2021

JSOCM

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Enhanced public awareness through social marketing or educational campaigns might be effective means of the prevention of risky smartphone use while driving [13]. Unfortunately, a large part of the knowledge on the effectiveness of road safety campaigns was based on the research using messages targeting speeding and drunk driving.…”

Section: Effectiveness Of Safety Messages Targeting Smartphone Use Wh...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Targeting Smartphone Use While Driving: Drivers’ Reactions to Different Types of Safety Messages

et al. 2021

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Only a few previous studies analyzed the effectiveness of road safety messages targeting smartphone use while driving and only several of them used messages from an ongoing road safety campaign. Thus, contributing to the field, this study aimed at testing the effectiveness of two types of social messages (threat appeal and threat appeal together with safe behavior role modelling) targeting smartphone use while driving. Ninety-three drivers were randomly assigned to two experimental (n1 = 26; n2 = 37) and one control (n = 29) groups. Each experimental group was presented with one 30 s length video message to reduce or stop smartphone use while driving. Messages differed in terms of threat appeal and modelling of safe behavior. The control group was presented with a 30 s length video clip showing neutral driving related content. The results revealed that threat appeals (alone or together with a safe role model) resulted in less positive emotions when compared to the control group’s reported emotional reactions. The message with threat appeal only also resulted in more negative emotions compared to the control group. With regards to behavioral intentions, road safety messages used in this study had minor effectiveness: the threat appeal message reduced the intentions to use smartphones while driving, only when previous behavior has been controlled. In sum, messages targeting smartphone use while driving were effective at least to some extent in changing drivers’ emotions and intentions not to be involved in targeted behavior, but the effect was minor and threat appeal only showed higher effectiveness.

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“…We found that before the law was enacted the rate of reported collisions was higher among smokers than non smokers. Other examples of the use of CAMH Monitor data to evaluate policy interventions include Wickens, et al [9] who assessed the impact of legislation to increase penalties for distracted driving on rates of texting and driving, and Mann, et al [10] who evaluated the impact of legislation introducing administrative sanctions for impaired driving in on rates of driving after drinking in the province. These secondary analyses can also be supplemented with qualitative interviews to provide some explanation and background for the original fi ndings.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Use of secondary data analyses in research: Pros and Cons

Ll¹,

Vingilis²,

Wickens³

et al. 2020

J Addict Med Ther Sci

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Assessing the impact of the 2015 introduction of increased penalties and enhanced public awareness and enforcement activities on texting while driving among adults in Ontario, Canada

Cited by 5 publications

References 19 publications

The role of construal fit in threat appeal to persuade young drivers not to text while driving

The role of construal fit in threat appeal to persuade young drivers not to text while driving

Targeting Smartphone Use While Driving: Drivers’ Reactions to Different Types of Safety Messages

Use of secondary data analyses in research: Pros and Cons

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