Measuring and influencing social forgivingness; An investigation of the observability of social forgivingness in relation with behaviour in different traffic environments. This report further details social forgivingness using two different angles. First we will go into the possibilities of investigating the observability of social forgivingness using the research question: To which extent can social forgivingness be determined on the basis of observable behaviours? Secondly, we will also make a first attempt to investigate social forgivingness with respect to content. Here the emphasis is on the influence of the setting of the traffic task on (expressions of) social forgivingness. The corresponding research question is: To which extent do differences in setting influence expressions of social forgivingness? For this study, the differences in setting were operationalized as differences in the extent to which the setting is controlled or regulated. The interaction between road users can to a greater or lesser extent be explicitly controlled by traffic elements. When many traffic elements (e.g. markings, traffic lights) have been applied, we call the setting ‘more controlled’. Conversely, when few traffic elements have been applied, we speak of a 'less controlled' setting. In this study we have often used Shared Space locations. In this study the emphasis was on the possibilities of investigating social forgivingness. Based on a survey of different research methods, we have chosen a combination of methods: an explorative observation study and a questionnaire study (a so-called Situational Judgement Test) with a more experimental design. The different methods complement each other and therefore give a more reliable and more complete picture than if only one method were used. On the basis of literature studied, we have also selected speed, distance, viewing behaviour, gestures and priority behaviour as possibly useable operationalizations of social forgivingness.
Abstract