Distracted Driving, Driving Behaviors, Impaired Driving
Conditions
Keywords
Habit Formation, Financial Incentives, Phone Use While Driving, Seat Belt Wearing
Brief summary
The study team is proposing to conduct a randomized controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of behavioral and financial incentives on phone use while driving and seat belt adherence. Each arm will receive a support text if their app is not collecting data. The behavioral engagement intervention includes persuasive education, mental contrasting with implementation intentions, customized habit tips, weekly feedback about participants' streaks, and encouraging SMS texts. The two financial incentive interventions add on weekly raffles or shared pots for participants with perfect streaks.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALPersuasive education
The research team will use psychology and communications research to present information about seat belts and distracted driving in a way that builds intrinsic motivation to change. Because positively framed messages are more effective at promoting seat belt wearing, the team's messaging will employ this framing. Education will address common reasons that survey participants give for not consistently buckling up or for phone use while driving.
BEHAVIORALWOOP (aka, mental contrasting with implementation intentions., Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan)
Participants will receive an intervention on improving driving behavior with a specific goal in mind and how to reach that goal. Participants will do this by thinking through 4 parts: a wish, an outcome, an obstacle and a plan. This has been shown to build motivation, and help achieve the desired change.
BEHAVIORALCustomized Habit Tips
Participants will receive weekly text-message tips, informed by findings from survey responses, plus reminders to address stated obstacles.
BEHAVIORALRaffle Financial Incentive
Each week, participants who adhere to seat belt use or abstain from phone use while driving get a chance at prize money. One winner will be randomly chosen for each target behavior and earn prize money; the rest will not receive compensation.
BEHAVIORALShared Pot Financial Incentive
This will be identical to the raffle incentive, except that each week participants who adhere to seat belt use or abstain from phone use while driving will be guaranteed an equal share of prize money.
BEHAVIORALWeekly SMS Support text
Participants will receive a support SMS to troubleshoot, etc. if the Way to Drive app is not collecting trip data.
BEHAVIORALWeekly SMS Encouragement
Those who have a perfect streak going midway through each week will receive an additional encouraging message cheering them on.
Sponsors
General Motors (GM)
University of Pennsylvania
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
FACTORIAL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
* Are a GM/OnStar customer. * Are 18 or older. * Meet minimum trip requirements. * Uses vehicle with OnStar * At least 5 weeks of baseline trip data with \>=8 trips/week at baseline on average * Baseline seat belt use \<= 75% on trips less than 2 miles and \<= 90 on trips greater than 2 miles * English reading ability * Have an email address * Have a smartphone with iPhone iOS 12 or later or Android OS 7 or later
Exclusion criteria
* You are unable to read and understand English
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Proportion of trips with seat belt use | 105 days | Calculated as the number of trips during which a driver's seat belt click was detected, divided by total number of trips (defined as 1/10 of a mile or greater). |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Seconds of active (handheld) phone use per hour of driving | 105 days | This is a composite outcome that measures the proportion of total trip time in which the driver is engaged in handheld phone call use or non-call handheld use (e.g. texting, swiping, and typing), as measured by the Way to Drive app. |
Countries
United States
Outcome results
None listed