Motivation and social norm affect drivers' safety margin

What is it about?

Drivers' decision on the dimensions of the safety envelope changes when their emotional states changes. Two sources for these changes are evaluated: 1) the traffic flow around the driver(speeding, school zone, normal, congested), 2) whether a money incentive is associate with their drive time. Results shows these two sources do lead to safety envelope changes. In general, people will go with flow. However, if they have a time sensitive goal, they will reduce their internal safety standards.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

This work systematically showed the interaction between drivers' efforts to conform with social norm and to achieve a time-sensitive goal. It contributes to understand the motivation and emotion factors in driving and how they related to drivers' safety decisions.