Emotional road-side advertisements and driving speed: the moderating effect of reckless and careless driving

Research on reducing dangerous driving behavior is essential. However, few studies have addressed the relationship between road safety advertisements and reckless and careless driving. Consequently, we focused on the impact of emotion-based road safety advertising on drivers’ speed and whether they drove reckless and careless. A secondary goal was to explore whether highly arousing advertisements can reduce speeding and driving careless and reckless over the long-term. A sub-scale from the Multidimensional Driving Style Inventory was used to measure reckless and careless driving. Data were collected from 101 university students (mean age = 22.88, SD = 2.69, range 18–36 years; 57 men, 44 women). Driving behavior was recorded by a driving simulator. Regression analyses showed that highly arousing driving advertisements can reduce drivers’ risky driving behavior over the long term. In addition, after three days, highly arousing negative road safety advertisements were the most effective at slowing drivers who had a reckless and careless driving style compared to the other three advertisement types. The short-term analyses illustrated the same pattern. The findings suggest that advertising should be designed to target distinct driving styles to increase its effectiveness. This study extends the findings about the relationship between road safety advertisements and driving style. Additionally, this study revealed the pertinence of systematic research on emotion-based road safety advertisements using a dimensional model.