Several indications emerged from empirical studies in the past 20 years that behavioural characteristics such as committing driving violations and fast driving are associated with increased accident risk (Reason et al, 1991; Parker et al. 1995; Iversen, 2004). Also attitude dimensions have reliably shown to be associated with accident involvement (Ulleberg et al. 2002; Katteler & Woldringh, 2004). The usual research approach tries to describe if not explain accident frequency in terms of underlying attitudes and behavioural tendencies. Given the empirical evidence of association between these entities, injury prevention programs aim to influence attitudes and behaviour in a positive direction. It seems obvious that reaching better attitudes will help improving traffic behaviour that will presumably reduce, in turn, the chance of accident involvement. However, the paper provides unexpected empirical evidence that gives rise to severe doubts on the potential effectiveness of injury prevention programs that aim to improve attitudes. The paper discusses the outcome of an empirical study among adolescents on the impact of emotionally confronting traffic safety education. The study focused on the impact of exposing boys and girls of 14 - 17 years old to victims of traffic accidents in a emotionally intensive manner. Apart from the fact that the study could not find clear evidence for positive impact – even a slight tendency towards worse attitudes was found –, the study provided an interesting by-product. One of the variables included in the study was the degree in which youngsters had experienced severe road victims in their immediate proximity. A high degree of this close by experience can be considered as a more intrusive and above all more durable experience than a once-only, be it intrusive lecture by a road victim. The study throws a surprising light on how risk-taking attitudes and risky riding behaviour are to be viewed. These characteristics of road users appear to be part of a pattern of norms and values that will hardly or not change under the influence of an isolated fear-driven traffic safety education. In case repeated studies would confirm the outcome, a drastic change in the use and positioning of injury prevention programs would be required. (Author/publisher) This publication may be accessed by Internet users at: http://www.ictct.org/workshop.php?workshop_nr=25
Abstract