The use of legal and social sanctions as a norming influence on texting while driving

Abstract

ABSTRACT Laws banning texting while driving in the United States have not been highly successful in curbing the target behaviour. The aim of the current study was to explore the influence of normative campaign messages on texting while driving among college students from three states where the length of a ban on the behaviour differed. An online experiment using a 3 (State: more than 3 years vs. less than 1 year vs. no ban) × 2 (Message type: legal sanction vs. social sanction) × 2 (Time: pre- vs. post-message measures) mixed factorial design (N = 115) revealed that one-time exposure to the message containing a legal sanction changed perceived legal consequences regardless of state of residency. Furthermore, the legal sanction message was more effective than the social sanction message not only in fostering an unfavourable attitude toward texting while driving but also in weakening behavioural intention in the state where texting while driving had not been legally banned. The social sanction, on the other hand, was more effective than the legal sanction in the state where the law had been in effect less than 1 year, while its effect was the opposite direction in the state with no legal prohibition. Findings suggest that interventions conveying social norms against the behaviour might create immediate reactance to the intervention message unless it reinforces the ban. Instead, using a public campaign to reinforce the legal consequences of texting while driving is a promising way to minimize or prevent this risky behaviour.