Highlighting the injunctive norm to reduce phone-related distracted driving

The purpose of this research was to measure the effectiveness of a social norm intervention to reduce phone-related distracted driving on a university campus. The intervention involved posting two different signs that highlighted the injunctive norm (people's disapproval of the behavior). One of the signs had a strong focus on the injunctive norm, whereas the second sign merely implied that phone-related distracted driving was disapproved. Research assistants recorded the phone-related distracted driving behaviors of people as they drove away from the signs. The results suggest that injunctive norm messages can be effective in reducing phone-related distracted driving, but only when they focus people's attention on the social disapproval of that behavior.