<p>Cell phone use while driving is one of the commonest distracted driving behaviors that causes fatal crashes, and drivers are more likely to use their cell phones in work zones because of slow-moving traffic. The road safety campaign literature suggests that persuasive messages can positively influence safe driving behaviors leading to a reduction in crashes. Thus, this dissertation, guided by the risk perception attitude (RPA) framework, sought to examine how tailored messaging could serve as an effective communication strategy to promote positive attitudes and behavioral intentions in the context of cell phone use avoidance while driving through highway work zones. Findings from two studies, using a college student sample and a national sample of US young adults between 18 and 24 years old, revealed that the RPA framework likely does not serve as a useful audience segmentation strategy in this context because an overwhelming majority of participants (about 87%) belonged to the responsive group. A tailored messaging approach did not influence cell phone use avoidance while driving attitudes and intentions among the young adults because the majority of participants (70%) felt the messages were not designed uniquely for them and might not be personally relevant to them. However, the majority of participants (62%) reported that highway work zone safety was an important topic they would want to receive future messaging about because messages about this topic would help to save lives and protect public safety, drastically reduce crashes in highway work zones, and promote safe driving behaviors in highway work zones. Participants who were aware of the existence of state laws banning cell phone use while driving reported slightly higher attitudes toward and intentions to engage in safe driving behaviors compared to those who were not aware of the existence of such state laws. This dissertation suggests that instead of creating messages to raise risk perceptions and enhance efficacy perceptions, informing the young adult population in the US about the existence of laws banning cell phone use while driving might be an effective means to discourage them from using their cell phones while driving through highway work zones. By extending the RPA framework as an audience segmentation strategy, this dissertation also proposes a responsive group classification framework which could serve as a useful audience segmentation strategy in this study context to classify audiences into four groups to effectively tailor messages to them.</p>

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychological Sciences / Laura A. Brannon / The current research investigated strategies to reduce cell phone use while driving. Anti-distracted driving campaigns, which typically communicate risk information and target driver behavior, may produce limited effects because people tend to underestimate their risk from this behavior (e.g., Schlehofer et al., 2010). Study 1 compared the effects of messages targeting drivers to messages targeting non-drivers in order to examine the potential of discouraging people from having cell phone communication with others who are driving. Some anti-distracted driving campaigns have emphasized the potential harm to both the driver and others, but whether one approach (self-oriented or other-oriented messaging) is more persuasive than the other has not been examined empirically. Study 1 compared messages that were self-oriented, other-oriented, or neutral in terms of who could be affected by cell phone use while driving. Although cell phone use while driving generally is perceived as dangerous, people may make justifications for engaging in the behavior on at least some occasions, and these justifications may override the influence of risk knowledge on behavior. Consistent with inoculation theory (McGuire, 1961), if given the opportunity to practice refuting these justifications in a controlled setting, people will be more likely to defend themselves against justifications to engage in cell phone use while driving. Thus, Study 1 tested the prediction that participation in an inoculation task would reduce the likelihood of cell phone use while driving. Results from Study 1 suggested an advantage of targeting non-driving participants of cell phone conversations to enhance efforts for reducing on-the-road cell phone use. Study 1 also demonstrated a positive effect of inoculation, but primarily for behavior of non-driving participants of cell phone conversations. In addition to overconfidence in ability to avoid risk, habitual tendencies also may impede the influence of risk communication campaigns (Bayer & Campbell, 2012). Study 2 investigated the potential of mindfulness-based and implementation intentions techniques for helping people overcome habitual responses to their cell phone when doing so is inappropriate or inconvenient. Results indicated that pairing mindfulness-based training with risk information may be significantly more effective than risk information alone at inhibiting inappropriate cell phone use.