Can Emojis Prevent People From Speeding?
I had been in Israel for about a week. I was driving, inundated with the signs on the street around me, the different types of traffic lights, and trying to follow the instructions Waze was giving me. One traffic intervention caught my attention. A speed display flashed “90 km/hr” and then gave me this: ☹. I slammed on my brakes, and was filled with a feeling of guilt. The speed limit was 80 km/hr. Whoops.
I have to be honest here and admit that I have been known to go over the speed limit. But this time, a combination of a circle, two dots, and a curved line made me feel the disapproval. Now, there is good reason to drive at appropriate speeds. In the United States, speeding contributed to 27% of the fatalities in car crashes in 20151. Speeding reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around curves or objects in the roadway and extends the distance necessary to stop a vehicle2. Because of this, different speed reduction mechanisms exist—law enforcement, speed bumps (very popular, and nausea-inducing, in Israel), speed limit signs, and, as technology has advanced, speed indicator displays.
Speed indicator displays have been used in various countries in order to provide drivers with immediate feedback on their speed. The timing is crucial: the sign must be far enough away that the driver has time to read the display, yet near enough that she knows it is her car the sign is referring to.
First, why might these feedback signs work? After all, if a driver just looks at their own dashboard, don’t they see their own speed? The answer is, of course, yes — but we become desensitized to stimuli that are always in front of us as we habituate to them. Conversely, a new sign catches our attention, and thus can help someone who had no intention of speeding. And for those of us who were perhaps intentionally ignoring our dashboard? A psychologist might surmise that there is some public shame to having your misdeed posted to the world. Your private deed has become public, and as we can all attest to, that changes behavior.
A study in London3 reported that speed indicator displays effectively reduce driving speeds within a short distance of a sign (400 meters). However, there is also evidence suggesting that, after two weeks, drivers become desensitized to the sign and it is no longer that effective. Not surprisingly, drivers are most responsive if the sign is associated with a police car enforcing speed down the road.
References
- Traffic Safety Facts: 2015 Data, published July, 2017, https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812409
- Traffic Safety Facts: 2007 Data, Speeding, https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/810998
Walter, Louise, and Jeremy Broughton. “Effectiveness of speed indicator devices: An observational study in South London.” Accident Analysis & Prevention 43, no. 4 (2011): 1355-1358. - Pascalis, Olivier, Xavier de Martin de Viviés, Gizelle Anzures, Paul C. Quinn, Alan M. Slater, James W. Tanaka, and Kang Lee. “Development of face processing.” Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science 2, no. 6 (2011): 666-675.
- Simion, Francesca, and Elisa Di Giorgio. “Face perception and processing in early infancy: inborn predispositions and developmental changes.” Frontiers in Psychology 6 (2015): 969. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00969
- Dimberg, Ulf, Monika Thunberg, and Kurt Elmehed. “Unconscious facial reactions to emotional facial expressions.” Psychological Science 11, no. 1 (2000): 86-89.
- Palermo, Romina, and Gillian Rhodes. “Are you always on my mind? A review of how face perception and attention interact.” Neuropsychologica 45, no. 1 (2007): 75-92
- Churches, Owen, Mike Nicholls, Myra Thiessen, Mark Kohler, and Hannah Keage. “Emoticons in mind: An event-related potential study.” Social Neuroscience 9, no. 2 (2014): 196-202.
- Takahashi, Kohske, Takanori Oishi, and Masaki Shimada. “Is☺ Smiling? Cross-Cultural Study on Recognition of Emoticon’s Emotion.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 48, no. 10 (2017): 1578-1586.
About the Author
Yasmine Kalkstein
Yasmine is currently an Associate Professor of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership at the United States Military Academy at West Point, where she also serves as the Lead Integrator in the Character Integration Advisory Group. As a Fulbright Scholar, she spent a year working at the Medical Decision Making Center at Ono Academic College in Israel. She received her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from University of Minnesota and her BA in Biopsychology from University of Virginia. She is interested in the fields of character and leadership development, medical decision making, education, and human-centered design.
About us
We are the leading applied research & innovation consultancy
Our insights are leveraged by the most ambitious organizations
“
I was blown away with their application and translation of behavioral science into practice. They took a very complex ecosystem and created a series of interventions using an innovative mix of the latest research and creative client co-creation. I was so impressed at the final product they created, which was hugely comprehensive despite the large scope of the client being of the world's most far-reaching and best known consumer brands. I'm excited to see what we can create together in the future.
Heather McKee
BEHAVIORAL SCIENTIST
GLOBAL COFFEEHOUSE CHAIN PROJECT
OUR CLIENT SUCCESS
$0M
Annual Revenue Increase
By launching a behavioral science practice at the core of the organization, we helped one of the largest insurers in North America realize $30M increase in annual revenue.
0%
Increase in Monthly Users
By redesigning North America's first national digital platform for mental health, we achieved a 52% lift in monthly users and an 83% improvement on clinical assessment.
0%
Reduction In Design Time
By designing a new process and getting buy-in from the C-Suite team, we helped one of the largest smartphone manufacturers in the world reduce software design time by 75%.
0%
Reduction in Client Drop-Off
By implementing targeted nudges based on proactive interventions, we reduced drop-off rates for 450,000 clients belonging to USA's oldest debt consolidation organizations by 46%
