The Buckle‐up Promise Card: A Versatile Intervention for Large‐scale Behavior Change

Behavior analysts have developed and evaluated a variety of effective interventions for increasing the use of vehicle safety belts, including participative education programs, buckle-up reminder tech- niques, and various group and individual incen- tive/reward procedures (e.g., see reviews by Geller, 1988, 1990; Thyer & Geller, 1990). Many of these behavior-change procedures have been applied on communitywide levels by governmental agencies and grass roots groups (e.g., Bigelow, 1982; Trans- portation Research Board, 1989). The buckle-up promise card has been a useful component in many large-scale programs that increased safety belt use. This versatile behavior change technique is simple and straightforward, being somewhat analogous to the "say-do" paradigm used with preschool and developmentally disabled children (Karlan & Rusch, 1982; Rogers-Warren & Baer, 1976). Specifically, individuals are asked to sign a written statement of commitment (say) to use vehicle safety belts (do) for a specified period of time (e.g., 1 or 2 months).