The Impact of Threat Appeals on Fear Arousal and Driver Behavior: a valuable report

The Road Safety Knowledge Centre has recently posted a valuable report:The Impact of Threat Appeals on Fear Arousal and Driver Behavior: A Meta-Analysis of Experimental Research 1990–2011: National University of Ireland (DOP: 5/13)

The existing empirical research exploring the impact of threat appeals on driver behavior has reported inconsistent findings. In an effort to provide an up-to-date synthesis of the experimental findings, meta-analytic techniques were employed to examine the impact of threat-based messages on fear arousal and on lab-based indices of driving behaviour. This analysis of the experimental literature indicates that threat appeals can lead to increased fear arousal, but do not appear to have the desired impact on driving behaviour.

The findings are discussed in the context of threat-based road safety campaigns and future directions for experimental research in this area.