I believe the classic research suggests that fear/arousing messages can be effective in getting attention, but you need to know your audience, and you need a message that will then be processed and, most importantly, suggest action. There may thus be an inverted U function to fear/arousing messages; that is, if too extreme for that audience, it will interfere with processing as it produces emotions incompatible with thoughtful processing. Perhaps some of this is related to the healthcare town halls and the tactics of insurance companies and republican obstructionists? Alas, I digress....However, sticking to the issue of cell phone use while driving, I think such ads can raise awareness, but the key will be ads showing young people (or others) communicating effectively and expressing "no-texting" norms. That is, "don't you know that psych research has shown you are worse than a drunk bastard for driving us around while texting... you moron!" Just a suggestion from the end of my summer break. Gary
Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Psychology Saginaw Valley State University University Center, MI 48710 989-964-4491 peter...@svsu.edu ----- Original Message ----- From: "Tim Shearon" <tshea...@collegeofidaho.edu> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@acsun.frostburg.edu> Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 1:03:28 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern Subject: RE: [tips] Scare tactics and driving while texting Yep. I seem to remember that the research showed people insulate themselves from processing the information. I think Cialdini discusses this in his "Influence" and related work. But I'm very sure I remember that these ads have very limited effectiveness. That would be a good starting place, I think- but perhaps someone one the list whose area of expertise is social influence could add more. Tim _______________________________ Timothy O. Shearon, PhD Professor and Chair Department of Psychology The College of Idaho Caldwell, ID 83605 email: tshea...@collegeofidaho.edu teaching: intro to neuropsychology; psychopharmacology; general; history and systems "You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." Dorothy Parker ________________________________________ From: Michael Britt [michael.br...@thepsychfiles.com] Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 8:28 AM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Scare tactics and driving while texting I don't know if you've noticed, but more videos are appearing that are attempting to get people to stop texting while driving by showing videos of young people getting into scary accidents. This reminds me of other attempts to get young people to stop smoking by showing them images of cancerous lungs and by the whole "Scared Straight" program. Weren't these influence attempts shown to not be effective? Michael -- Michael Britt, Ph.D. Host of The Psych Files podcast www.thepsychfiles.com mich...@thepsychfiles.com --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
