Citation

Brown SL, Cotton A. J. Saf. Res. 2003; 34(2): 183-188.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Central Lancashire, Preston, UK. Slbrown2@uclan.ac.uk

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, U.S. National Safety Council, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

12737957

Abstract

PROBLEM: Research suggests that people who engage in risk-taking behaviors often hold specific beliefs that can mitigate or reduce their perceptions of risk associated with those behaviors. METHOD: A scale was developed (Speeding Risk Belief Scale (SRBS)) to assess beliefs about speeding-related risk and predict self-reported speeding in a random-digit telephone survey of 800 South Australian drivers between the ages of 16 and 50. RESULTS: The scale was internally consistent, and path analyses showed it to be associated with self-reported speeding, both directly and indirectly through participants' estimates of speeding-related risk. DISCUSSION: Origins of risk-mitigating beliefs and the extent to which they may be causally linked with speeding are discussed, and recommendations are made for future research. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY: This research has strong implications for the conduct of countermeasure campaigns that disseminate information on speeding-related risk.