A new study suggests more carrot and less stick to achieve compliance
of ConsumerAffairsLaw enforcement agencies have cracked down on motorists who dont use seatbelts in recent years with a Click it or Ticket it campaign. But, would a carrot rather than a stick approach be more effective?
Public health officials think it might.
Research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, published in the American Journal of Public Health, found that rewarding drivers for seatbelt compliance significantly reduced instances of driving without a seatbelt, both during and after the incentive program.
The study tested different methods to encourage seatbelt use among over 1,100 drivers from 49 states. The most effective approach involved offering drivers a share of $125 in weekly prize money for maintaining perfect seatbelt use streaks.
This strategy led to a 26% reduction in unbuckled driving trips compared to the control group during the program and a 33% reduction even after the program ended.
Lead author Jeff Ebert, director of Applied Behavioral Science at the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit, said using a nudge instead of penalties, combined with incentives, could lead to a substantial reduction in driving without seatbelts.
How the experiment worked
Participants who adhered to perfect seatbelt use were rewarded in three different ways:
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Shared Prize Incentive: Participants who achieved a perfect seatbelt use streak shared a weekly $125 prize. This group had the lowest rate of unbuckled driving, at 8.7%.
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Lottery Incentive: Drivers with a perfect streak were entered into a weekly lottery for the full $125 prize. Their unbuckled driving rate was 10.5%.
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Feedback-Only Group: Participants received text messages about their seatbelt use habits. Their unbuckled driving rate was 10.6%.
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Control Group: This group received no incentives or feedback and had the highest rate of unbuckled driving, at 11.9%.
Even five weeks after the program ended, drivers in the shared prize incentive group continued to show lower rates of unbuckled driving (8.0%) compared to the control group (11.7%).
Impact on distracted driving
The study also examined the effects of incentives on handheld phone use while driving. Distracted driving is responsible for over 3,000 deaths annually, with cell phone use playing a role in 12% of these fatalities. While the shared prize approach reduced handheld phone use by about a minute per hour of driving, the difference was not statistically significant.
Traditional enforcement methods, such as traffic tickets for not wearing a seatbelt, are effective but vary in application and can sometimes introduce bias, the study found. The research team suggested that incentive-based programs provide an alternative way to promote safety, especially with the growing use of connected vehicle data.
Participants in the study drove General Motors vehicles and voluntarily opted in after receiving an email invitation from the company. They were compensated with $20 for completing a demographic survey and $50 if they installed an app that monitored their phone use while driving.
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Posted: 2025-03-18 11:53:52
