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Surveillance or self-surveillance? Behavioral cues can increase the rate of drivers' pro-environmental behavior at a long wait stop

Meleady, R.; Abrams, D.; Van de Vyver, J.; Hopthrow, T.; Mahmood, L.; Player, A.; Lamont, R.; Leite, A.C.

Surveillance or self-surveillance? Behavioral cues can increase the rate of drivers' pro-environmental behavior at a long wait stop Thumbnail


Authors

R. Meleady

D. Abrams

T. Hopthrow

L. Mahmood

A. Player

R. Lamont



Abstract

By leaving their engines idling for long periods, drivers contribute unnecessarily to air pollution, waste fuel, and produce noise and fumes that harm the environment. Railway level crossings are sites where many cars idle, many times a day. In this research, testing two psychological theories of influence, we examine the potential to encourage drivers to switch off their ignition while waiting at rail crossings. Two field studies presented different signs at a busy rail crossing site with a 2-min average wait. Inducing public self-focus (via a “Watching Eyes” stimulus) was not effective, even when accompanied by a written behavioral instruction. Instead, cueing a private-self focus (“think of yourself”) was more effective, doubling the level of behavioral compliance. These findings confirm the need to engage the self when trying to instigate self-regulatory action, but that cues evoking self-surveillance may sometimes be more effective than cues that imply external surveillance.

Citation

Meleady, R., Abrams, D., Van de Vyver, J., Hopthrow, T., Mahmood, L., Player, A., …Leite, A. (2017). Surveillance or self-surveillance? Behavioral cues can increase the rate of drivers' pro-environmental behavior at a long wait stop. Environment and Behavior, 49(10), 1156-1172. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916517691324

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 6, 2017
Online Publication Date Feb 10, 2017
Publication Date Dec 1, 2017
Deposit Date Sep 6, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal Environment and Behavior
Print ISSN 0013-9165
Electronic ISSN 1552-390X
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 49
Issue 10
Pages 1156-1172
DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916517691324
Related Public URLs http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/25888/

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

Copyright Statement
© 2017 The Author(s) This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).





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