Citation

Geller ES, Hickman JS, Pettinger CB. J. Saf. Res. 2004; 35(4): 357-366.

Affiliation

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Psychology.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.jsr.2004.04.002

PMID

15474540

Abstract

Introduction: The Airline Lifesaver (AL) is a 13.3 cmx9.8 cm card any passenger can deliver to the attendant of a commercial airline in order to prompt the delivery of an important safety message. In particular, the AL requests the following safety-belt reminder be added to the regular announcements given at the end of the flight-"Now that you have worn a seat belt for the safest part of your trip, the flight crew would like to remind you to buckle-up during your ground transportation." Method: The AL card was handed to 1,258 flight attendants over a 17-year period and compliance with the request for the safety message was systematically tracked. Slightly more than one-third of the AL cards (n=460) included an incentive for making the announcement. Results: Without the incentive, compliance to give the buckle-up reminder was 35.5% of 798 flights. With the incentive, compliance was significantly higher (i.e., 53.3%). Impact: The validity of the AL intervention is discussed with regard to its: (a) relevance to cognitive dissonance and consistency theory, and (b) broad-based applicability as a component of community-wide efforts to facilitate a safety-focused culture. The 17-year study also demonstrated a practical and cost-effective application of a behavior-based incentive program.