Investigating the Efficacy of Social Norms Messages to Reduce Smartphone Use Among Young Drivers

Gauld, Cassandra; Craft, Tanya; Stepnik, Marcin · 2025 · Crossref

DOI: 10.33492/jrs-d-25-3-2693822

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Summary

This study addresses the disproportionate involvement of young drivers in smartphone-related road crashes, investigating whether social norms messages can effectively reduce this risky behavior. While normative influences are known to shape young drivers' actions, there is limited research on the efficacy of specific social norms messaging in this context. The authors aimed to evaluate the relative effectiveness of three types of social norms messages—descriptive (what others do), subjective (approval from important others), and injunctive (societal approval)—on young drivers' intentions and perceptions regarding smartphone use while driving. The researchers conducted a survey study with 136 young drivers (aged 18–25, mean age 21.15) in New South Wales, Australia. Participants were randomly assigned to view one of the three static billboard-style messages, which included believable statistics and targeted young NSW drivers. The study utilized the Social Norms Approach and the SatMDT framework to evaluate message acceptance (measured by intention to use a smartphone and perceived message effectiveness), message rejection, and the third-person effect. Two-way ANOVAs were performed to analyze the impact of message type, gender, and license type (provisional vs. open) on these outcomes. The results indicated that subjective and injunctive norm messages were more effective than descriptive norm messages, though post-hoc tests did not show statistically significant differences between the pairs after Bonferroni adjustment. License type significantly influenced intention; provisional license holders reported a significantly lower intention to use their smartphones while driving compared to open license holders, regardless of the message viewed. Gender differences were observed in the third-person effect: young male drivers were significantly more likely than females to report that the injunctive norm message would influence others more than themselves. Additionally, males were generally more likely to report the third-person effect across all messages. The findings suggest that social norms messages, particularly those focusing on subjective and injunctive norms, may be more persuasive than descriptive norms for reducing smartphone use among young drivers. The lower intention to use phones among provisional license holders highlights the potential for targeted interventions for this group, possibly due to heightened norm salience or stricter penalties. The gender-specific findings imply that different messaging strategies may be required for young male and female drivers, with subjective norms potentially more effective for males and injunctive norms for females. Overall, the study supports the integration of social norms messaging into road safety countermeasures to address smartphone use among young drivers.

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Topics

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• public messaging
• passenger effects

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• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence