Road Safety

(Commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE))

The aim was to conduct three systematic reviews to support the development of public health guidance by NICE on the most appropriate means of generic and specific interventions to support attitude and behaviour change at population and community levels.

1. Road Safety: the effectiveness of interventions designed to improve road safety related knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and wider outcomes.
2. Pro-Environmental Behaviour: the effectiveness of interventions designed to encourage the adoption of pro-environmental knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and other related outcomes.
3. Marketing: how commercial marketing and social marketing can influence behaviour.

Reviews 1 and 2 examined the characteristics of interventions, evidence for effectiveness of interventions and factors which influenced effectiveness. Review 3 examined the nature of marketing and social marketing as behaviour change techniques; reviewed the nature and effects of marketing to low-income consumers; and summarised the effect of commercial food marketing on children and the effectiveness of social marketing in changing health behaviours.

ISM Staff: Martine Stead, Laura McDermott (left 2008), Kathryn Angus and Gerard Hastings

Collaborators: Paul Broughton

Publications:
Stead M, McDermott L, Broughton P, Angus K and Hastings G (2006). Review of the Effectiveness of Road Safety and Pro-Environmental Interventions. Prepared for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Stirling: Institute for Social Marketing, University of Stirling.

Stead M, McDermott L, Angus K and Hastings G (2006). Marketing Review. Prepared for the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Stirling: Institute for Social Marketing, University of Stirling.

(Funded by Road Safety Scotland)

'Foolsspeed' was a mass media advertising campaign (1998-2001) designed by Road Safety Scotland to reduce the use of inappropriate and excessive speed on urban roads. It was targeted at the general driving population in Scotland, with a key sub-group of drivers with a known tendency to speed, (25-44 year old males in social classes ABC1). The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), a model which explains and predicts behaviour in terms of key psychological determinants, was used to shape a series of advertisements, each targeting a key determinant of speeding intentions and behaviour.

This study, which complemented earlier research undertaken by the ISM (see below), aimed to assess the communication effectiveness of the final advertisement in the campaign ('Doppelganger', 2005) and to inform the development of future speeding initiatives. Qualitative research was conducted with the core target group of drivers aged 17-54 to explore views on road safety advertising in general, recall of and reactions to the main Foolsspeed ads, and their perceptions of the campaign as a whole. Findings from the research are published as a Scottish Executive research publication.

ISM Staff: Martine Stead and Douglas Eadie

Publications:
Stead M and Eadie D (2007). Evaluation of Foolsspeed Campaign Final Phase - Report - Transport Research Series. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive Social Research.

(Commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions and the Scottish Road Safety Campaign)

This three-year programme of research was conducted to develop and evaluate the Scottish Road Safety Campaign's (SRSC) 'Foolsspeed' mass media campaign (1998-2003). Foolsspeed sought to reduce the use of inappropriate and excessive speed on Scotland's roads through a focused and structured publicity campaign which was explicitly shaped by the Theory of Planned Behaviour. Three television advertisements were run over a three-year period, each designed to address one of the TPB's three main predictors of behaviour: Attitude, Subjective Norms and Perceived Behavioural Control. A four-year longitudinal cohort study (550 drivers) examined the impact of the campaign on communications outcomes and on TPB constructs. A baseline questionnaire in 1998 took measures of Theory of Planned Behaviour determinants of driver attitudes, beliefs, speed choice and speeding behaviour. Follow-up questionnaires in 1999, 2000 and 2001 repeated the baseline questions and also took a series of communication measures, examining recall and awareness of the campaign, understanding and perceptions of the campaign's key messages, and response to the campaign in terms of identification, involvement and enjoyment. Overall, empirical support was found for the decision to use TPB as the theoretical underpinning of the advertising. The advertising was effective in triggering desired communications outcomes, and was associated with significant changes in attitudes and 'positive and negative affective beliefs' about speeding.

ISM Staff: Martine Stead, Anne Marie MacKintosh and Douglas Eadie

Publications:
Stead M, MacKintosh AM, Tagg S and Eadie D (2002). Changing speeding behaviour in Scotland: An evaluation of the 'Foolsspeed' campaign. Edinburgh: Scottish Executive Social Research. Online

Stead M, Tagg S, MacKintosh AM and Eadie DR (2005). Development and evaluation of a mass media theory of planned behaviour intervention to reduce speeding. Health Education Research, 20(1): 36-50.