A barrier to building a traffic safety culture in America : understanding why drivers feel invulnerable and ambivalent when it comes to traffic safety.

This paper uses attribution theory--from its base in social psychology--to develop a framework for understanding how drivers attribute responsibility for auto accidents. It argues that drivers explain why accidents occur by attributing cause or responsibility for an accident. It further examines the extent to which drivers attribute the responsibility for safety to themselves. The fundamental premise is that when drivers attribute the "cause" of accidents to drivers, they also come to attribute responsibility to themselves for driving safely. The analysis explores how the attribution process "works". In an innovative application of attribution theory, it develops a framework for intervening in the attribution process to impact its outcome. The analysis argues that by redirecting the attribution process away from other drivers or external events (e.g., traffic congestion caused to accident) to themselves, drivers come to recognize and assume responsibility for driving safety. The paper proposes that by intervening in the attribution process, drivers will be less likely to "blame" external situations (e.g., the "other" driver, weather, road conditions, etc.) for accidents and more likely to assume a greater sense of responsibility for driving safely.