Although most people support car reduction measures, few people are willing to take the first step in actually reducing traffic. Car use is often attributed to internal dispositions; people can but they do not want to reduce their car use. However, car users themselves usually refer to external causes for their behaviour; they want to, but in their situation they cannot reduce their car use (the actor-observer effect). Four survey studies were conducted among residents, organisations and policy makers in a medium sized town in the UK: Guildford. Organisations and residents were asked to what extent they are willing and able to reduce their car use (in their organisations) and policy makers were asked to what extent they believed organisations and residents are willing and able to reduce their car use. Moreover, it was examined to what extent the internal or external attributions policy makers make influence their perceptions of the malleability of car use. As expected it was found that actors (organisations and residents) attribute car use to external causes and observers (policy makers) attribute car use to internal dispositions. These attributions influence perceptions of the malleability of car use. However, this relationship varied for different behaviour change strategies. The data suggest that internal attributions may be related to the perceived effectiveness of positive or persuasive strategies, whereas external attributions may be more strongly related to the perceived effectiveness of negative strategies. For the covering abstract see ITRD E113725 (C 22328 CD-ROM).
Abstract