I believe the classic research suggests that fear/arousing messages can be
effective in getting attention, but you need to know your audience, and you
need a message that will then be processed and, most importantly, suggest
action. There may thus be an inverted U function to fear/arousing messages;
that is, if too extreme for that audience, it will interfere with processing as
it produces emotions incompatible with thoughtful processing. Perhaps some of
this is related to the healthcare town halls and the tactics of insurance
companies and republican obstructionists? Alas, I digressHowever, sticking
to the issue of cell phone use while driving, I think such ads can raise
awareness, but the key will be ads showing young people (or others)
communicating effectively and expressing no-texting norms. That is, don't
you know that psych research has shown you are worse than a drunk bastard for
driving us around while texting... you moron! Just a suggestion from the end
of my summer break. Gary
Gerald L. (Gary) Peterson, Ph.D.
Professor, Department of Psychology
Saginaw Valley State University
University Center, MI 48710
989-964-4491
peter...@svsu.edu
- Original Message -
From: Tim Shearon tshea...@collegeofidaho.edu
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) tips@acsun.frostburg.edu
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 1:03:28 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: RE: [tips] Scare tactics and driving while texting
Yep. I seem to remember that the research showed people insulate themselves
from processing the information. I think Cialdini discusses this in his
Influence and related work. But I'm very sure I remember that these ads have
very limited effectiveness. That would be a good starting place, I think- but
perhaps someone one the list whose area of expertise is social influence could
add more.
Tim
___
Timothy O. Shearon, PhD
Professor and Chair Department of Psychology
The College of Idaho
Caldwell, ID 83605
email: tshea...@collegeofidaho.edu
teaching: intro to neuropsychology; psychopharmacology; general; history and
systems
You can't teach an old dogma new tricks. Dorothy Parker
From: Michael Britt [michael.br...@thepsychfiles.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2009 8:28 AM
To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)
Subject: [tips] Scare tactics and driving while texting
I don't know if you've noticed, but more videos are appearing that are
attempting to get people to stop texting while driving by showing videos
of young people getting into scary accidents. This reminds me of other
attempts to get young people to stop smoking by showing them images of
cancerous lungs and by the whole Scared Straight program. Weren't these
influence attempts shown to not be effective?
Michael
--
Michael Britt, Ph.D.
Host of The Psych Files podcast
www.thepsychfiles.com
mich...@thepsychfiles.com
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