Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

“We aren’t idlers”: Using subjective group dynamics to promote prosocial driver behavior at long‐wait stops

Player, A.; Abrams, D.; Van de Vyver, J.; Meleady, R.; Leite, A.C.; Randsley de Moura, G.; Hopthrow, T.

“We aren’t idlers”: Using subjective group dynamics to promote prosocial driver behavior at long‐wait stops Thumbnail


Authors

A. Player

D. Abrams

R. Meleady

G. Randsley de Moura

T. Hopthrow



Abstract

Idling engines are a substantial air pollutant which contribute to many health and environmental problems. In this field experiment (N = 419) we use the subjective group dynamics framework to test ways of motivating car drivers to turn off idle engines at a long wait stop where the majority leave their engines idling. One of three normative messages (descriptive norm, in‐group prescriptive deviance, outgroup prescriptive deviance) was displayed when barriers were down at a busy railway level‐crossing. Compared to the baseline, normative messages increased the proportion of drivers that turned off their engines. Consistent with subjective group dynamics theory, the most effective approach was to highlight instances of in‐group prescriptive deviance (47% stopped idling, compared with 28% in the baseline). Implications for health and environmental outcomes and future research are discussed.

Citation

Player, A., Abrams, D., Van de Vyver, J., Meleady, R., Leite, A., Randsley de Moura, G., & Hopthrow, T. (2018). “We aren’t idlers”: Using subjective group dynamics to promote prosocial driver behavior at long‐wait stops. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 48(11), 643-648. https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12554

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jul 10, 2018
Online Publication Date Sep 14, 2018
Publication Date Nov 1, 2018
Deposit Date Sep 6, 2018
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Journal of Applied Social Psychology
Print ISSN 0021-9029
Electronic ISSN 1559-1816
Publisher Wiley
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 48
Issue 11
Pages 643-648
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12554
Related Public URLs http://eprints.lincoln.ac.uk/32630/

Files


Published Journal Article (432 Kb)
PDF

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

Copyright Statement
© 2018 The Authors. Journal of Applied Social Psychology published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.





You might also like



Downloadable Citations