Citation

Pedruzzi R, Swinbourne A, Quirk F. J. Australas. Coll. Road Saf. 2017; 28(3): 30-42.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Australasian College of Road Safety)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Road safety advertising in Australia is largely based on the assumption that more fear results in greater persuasion. As such, the portrayal of violent road crashes remains the status quo. The current research aimed to investigate if individuals perceive they can influence such outcomes, as theory suggests that efficacy perceptions are central to fear appeal success.

RESULTS from two studies demonstrated that participants believed their behaviours would influence financial and point penalty outcomes but not the occurrence of road crashes. This research demonstrates why the portrayal of car crash outcomes in road safety messages needs to be reconsidered.

Keywords: Fear appeals, threat appeals, efficacy, control perceptions, road safety advertising, Extended Parallel Process Model

Language: en

Keywords

Accident prevention; Australia; Education; Public opinion; Publicity; Road user; Safe systems (road users); Traffic safety; Traffic safety education; Crash causes; Crash severity; Crash cause; Crash countermeasure; Road user education