Influence of sexual appeal in roadside advertising on drivers' attention and driving behavior.

Maliszewski, Norbert; Olejniczak-Serowiec, Anna; Harasimczuk, Justyna · 2019 · DOAJ

DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0216919

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Summary

This research investigates whether sexual appeals in roadside advertising pose a threat to road safety by diverting drivers' attention and altering driving behavior. While previous studies established that roadside advertisements generally increase cognitive load and reaction times, the specific impact of emotionally arousing content, particularly sexual imagery, remained underexplored. The authors hypothesized that sexual stimuli would capture attention more intensely than other content types, leading to greater distraction and impaired driving performance. The study comprised three distinct phases. Study I was a nationwide survey of 1,095 Polish drivers assessing subjective perceptions of distraction. Participants rated how frequently various advertisement types (sexual, positive, negative, humorous, intriguing, and sales offers) distracted them. Study II employed a modified Attentional Network Test (brief-ANT) with 1,063 participants to measure cognitive mechanisms, specifically examining how sexual content intensity affected reaction times and attention management. Study III utilized a driving simulator with 55 participants to observe actual changes in driving characteristics, such as lane deviation and speed, when exposed to sexually oriented advertisements of varying intensity. The results consistently supported the hypothesis that sexual appeals are significantly distracting. In Study I, drivers subjectively perceived sexual advertisements as more distracting than positive, humorous, or sales-oriented content, though not significantly more than negative or intriguing content. Notably, drivers who had experienced dangerous situations due to distraction rated sexual ads as particularly hazardous. Study II demonstrated that reaction times in cognitive tasks increased in correlation with the sexual intensity of the advertisements, indicating impaired attention management. Study III confirmed that driving behavior deteriorated in the presence of sexual advertisements, with driving characteristics changing significantly compared to non-sexual conditions. The findings conclude that sexually appealing cues in roadside advertising constitute a genuine threat to road safety. By engaging visual attention and inducing arousal, these advertisements divert drivers' focus from the road, increasing cognitive load and reaction times. The study highlights that the emotional valence and intensity of advertising content are critical factors in driver distraction, suggesting that regulatory bodies should consider limiting sexually explicit roadside advertising to mitigate traffic risks.

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Topics

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• external distraction
• visual
• public messaging