Scottish Government

Changing Speeding Behaviour in Scotland: An evaluation of the 'Foolsspeed' campaign

Executive Summary

• Speeding is a major concern for all working in road safety in Scotland. Studies into the psychological factors associated with speeding suggest that social norms, beliefs, emotional factors and exaggerated feelings of control and confidence are all important contributors to speeding; in addition, male drivers, young drivers, and drivers in higher social classes are the groups most likely to speed.
• 'Foolsspeed' is a five-year campaign by the Scottish Road Safety Campaign designed to reduce the use of inappropriate and excessive speed on Scotland's roads. It comprises a focused and structured mass media advertising campaign underpinned by the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB) (Ajzen 1988), a model which explains and predicts behaviour in terms of key psychological determinants. The TPB was used to shape a series of television advertisements, each designed to address a key determinant of behavioural intention according to the TPB: attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control.
• The campaign began in November 1998 with the introduction of the Foolsspeed logo in television advertising, publicity materials and unpaid publicity. In Spring 1999, a 40-second television advertisement "Mirror", designed to address attitudes towards speeding, was developed and screened. A second 40-second television advertisement "Friends and Family" was developed and screened in Spring 2000; this was designed to address subjective norms regarding speeding. In Summer 2001, a third 40-second advertisement, "Simon Says", addressed perceived behavioural control over speeding.
• The campaign is targeted at the general driving population in Scotland. However, a key sub-group for the campaign is drivers with a known tendency to speed, particularly 25-44 year old males in social classes ABC1.

The Foolsspeed advertising was evaluated by the Centre for Social Marketing (CSM) at the University of Strathclyde through a three-year longitudinal survey of a quota sample of drivers aged 17-54. The aims of the evaluation were threefold:

1. To assess awareness and recall of elements of the Foolsspeed campaign amongst the driving population

2. To examine drivers' response to the Foolsspeed advertising in terms of comprehension, identification, involvement and perceptions of key messages

3. To measure and compare drivers' reported behaviour, intentions, attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control in relation to urban speeding (i.e. speeding on a 30mph-limit road) at baseline and at subsequent stages to assess whether any changes occurred

• A baseline survey was conducted in October 1998, and follow-up surveys were conducted in Spring 1999, Spring 2000 and early Summer 2001. A structured questionnaire was administered face-to-face in respondents' homes by CSM's fieldforce of interviewers. Each survey took measures of respondents' demographic and driving characteristics, speeding behaviour, and Theory of Planned Behaviour components, to enable a comparison to be made with the sample at baseline and to allow for assessment of any changes in attitudes, norms, intentions and behaviour over the period of the campaign. The full raft of TPB component measures were taken in the survey, plus additional components which have been proposed as possible extensions to the model. The follow-up surveys also took measures of spontaneous and prompted recall of the Foolsspeed campaign, and examined detailed reactions to the three 40-second television advertisements.
• The survey was conducted in Renfrew, in the West of Scotland, selected as the study area because it is representative of the overall Scottish population in terms of car and home ownership and in its range of affluence and deprivation. The baseline sample (n=550) was selected to be broadly representative of the 17-54 year old driving population, with interlocking quota controls on age and sex. The achieved sample at the 2 ^nd survey was 388, at the 3 ^rd survey 367, and at the 4 ^th survey 287.
• A range of advertising measures were taken in the follow-up surveys to assess awareness and recall of the Foolsspeed campaign, and to provide detailed feedback on response to the three 40-second television advertisements.

• The survey took measures of all the main TPB components, plus several additional components, at baseline and follow-up surveys. Scores for all components were compared between the baseline and subsequent surveys to assess whether any changes occurred over the period of the research. Results were analysed by two key variables, awareness of Foolsspeed advertising and baseline frequency of reported speeding. The former analysis was conducted to assess whether any of the changes in TPB component scores, where these occurred, could be associated with exposure to Foolsspeed advertising. The latter analysis was conducted to examine and compare any trends in response between those categorised at the baseline as frequent, occasional or infrequent speeders.

• Multiple regression analyses found that the basic TPB was able to predict between 47% and 53% of the variance in intentions and between 33% and 40% of the variance in behaviour (reported speeding on a 30mph road), when analysed for each survey stage separately. These figures, which are consistent with findings from previous studies, confirm that the TPB is a useful predictive tool for explaining speeding behaviour, and support the strategic decision to use the TPB as the underpinning to a mass media campaign designed to influence speed intentions and behaviour. Attitudes and perceived behavioural control made significant contributions to the prediction of intentions at all four survey stages, and subjective norms made a significant contribution at three of the four survey stages. Intentions and perceived behavioural control made significant contributions to prediction of behaviour at all four stages. Replacing the full perceived behavioural control variable with the simpler alternative measure appeared to improve prediction of intentions, but did not appear to improve prediction of behaviour. The analyses also suggested that the predictive strength of the TPB remained consistent when measures were taken at four separate survey stages. The ability of baseline characteristics to predict 27% of variance in intentions and 22% of variance in behaviour three years later suggests that the model's predictive strength remains reasonably robust. Finally, the analyses show that affective beliefs, particularly negative affective beliefs, are associated with intentions, lending support to the view that these form a useful addition to the TPB.

• The aims of the advertising measures were to assess spontaneous awareness and prompted recall of the Foolsspeed campaign, and to provide detailed feedback on the 40-second television advertisements. The surveys examined respondents' liking, comprehension, identification and involvement with the advertisements, as well as examining their spontaneous response at an emotional level. The surveys also examined the extent to which the advertisements challenged drivers to consider their own driving. Immediate reactions such as these provide indications as to whether advertising is engaging with its target group. Engagement with an advertisement is an important precursor to any changes in attitudes and behaviour.
• Between a fifth and a third of respondents over the three surveys spontaneously mentioned having seen Foolsspeed on television. There were also relatively high levels of spontaneous awareness, at all survey stages, of seeing Foolsspeed in a range of other media including vehicle-side advertising, posters and billboards, newspapers and cinema. Level of recall rose when respondents were prompted with the Foolsspeed name (64% at the 2 ^nd survey to 92% at the 4 ^th survey) and with a picture of the Foolsspeed logo (66% at the 2 ^nd survey to 95% at the 4 ^th survey).
• Of the three 40-second ads, the 'Mirror' ad received the highest level of prompted recall, 74% in Spring 1999 rising to 86% in both subsequent years. 'Friends & Family' and 'Simon Says' received lower levels of prompted recall in the years they were first screened (55% and 53% respectively), although prompted awareness of 'Friends & Family' rose to 83% by its second year. Because respondents are exposed to visuals of the Foolsspeed advertising and logo at each survey stage, the earliest awareness measure taken for each campaign element is perhaps the most meaningful.

• The "Mirror" advert, designed to address the attitudes component of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, appeared to trigger, at a spontaneous level, feelings of identification and in challenging drivers to reflect on their own driving. Encouragingly, drivers in the target age group of 25-44 were more likely to express feelings of involvement than other drivers. The majority of respondents liked the "Mirror" advertisement, found it easy to understand, considered that it did not 'talk down' to them, and made them think about their own driving. Younger drivers and frequent speeders were most likely to feel that the advertisement was targeted at them and to agree that the advertisement made them feel that they 'drove too fast'.
• The "Friends and Family" advert, designed to address the subjective norms component of the Theory of Planned Behaviour, appeared to trigger different sorts of thoughts and feelings. Although respondents did feel to some extent that the advertisement challenged them to consider their own driving, they appeared to feel less identification than with "Mirror". This may be partly because the driving behaviour depicted in the "Friends and Family" advertisement was more obviously 'bad' or extreme than that depicted in "Mirror". Where the "Friends and Family" advertisement did trigger feelings of identification, emotion and empathy, these tended to be more in relation to the passengers than the driver. The advertisement appeared to communicate messages about speeding and about displaying concern for others. As with the Mirror advertisement, the majority of respondents found the advertisement easy to understand, liked it, considered that it did not 'talk down' to them; the advertisement also appeared to encourage them to think about how passengers viewed their driving.

• The "Simon Says" advert was designed to address the perceived behavioural control component of the Theory of Planned Behaviour - i.e. to increase awareness of, and ability to cope with, internal and external pressures which reduce one's control over speeding. The theme of external pressure appears to have been communicated reasonably effectively by the ad, with over half of the respondents who had seen the ad spontaneously commenting on this theme. Half of the respondents also spontaneously expressed some degree of recognition and identification with the scenarios depicted in the ad. The main messages communicated by the ad appeared, at a spontaneous level, to be concerned with not being influenced or bullied by other drivers, and speeding, although a range of other messages were also identified by respondents. At a prompted level, the majority of respondents found the ad easy to understand, felt it did not 'talk down' to them, liked it, and felt it made them think about their own driving. Although overall respondents tended to disagree that the ad 'made me feel I drive too fast' and 'made me feel bad about how I drive', agreement with these two statements increased significantly among younger respondents. Agreement with three of the statements, 'the ad made me feel I need to have more control over my speed', 'the ad made me feel bad about how I drive' and 'the ad made me feel that I drive too fast' also increased with more frequent speeding behaviour; this suggests that, as with Mirror and Friends and Family, the ad was more successful in encouraging reflection and dissonance about one's own driving among drivers who speed.

• There were significant changes in an anti-speeding direction over the campaign period in the three attitudinal components of the Theory of Planned Behaviour - composite Attitude towards the Behaviour, composite Positive Affective Beliefs and composite Negative Affective Beliefs. These changes were largely sustained between the 2 ^nd and 4 ^th surveys, and were nearly always significantly associated with awareness of the Mirror ad - i.e. they did not occur in those who did not see the Mirror ad - providing reasonable support for the conclusion that the Mirror ad had a favourable effect on Attitudes and Affective Beliefs about speeding.
• There was no evidence that desired changes occurred in composite Subjective Norms or composite Perceived Behavioural Control over the campaign period. Minor changes did occur in the items which make up these two components, between the baseline and subsequent surveys, but these were either short-lived or not always in the desired anti-speeding direction. There appears, at best, only weak evidence that awareness of the Friends and Family ad had an effect on Subjective Norms, and no evidence that awareness of Simon Says had an effect on Perceived Behavioural Control.
• There was no evidence of a change in Behavioural Intentions between the baseline and any subsequent survey. There was no change in the measure used for overall reported Behaviour, but there was evidence between the baseline and 3 ^rd survey, and between the baseline and 4 ^th survey, of a reduction in reported frequency of speeding in one of three different driving circumstances included in the questionnaire, 'on a road with a 30mph limit'. This change was not associated with awareness of the Foolsspeed advertising.

• In conclusion, the study suggests that the TPB provides a promising framework not only for understanding and describing driver behaviour, but also for designing theory-based road safety interventions. The results demonstrate that it is possible to create memorable and engaging road safety advertising without the use of graphic and fear-inducing images. Foolsspeed's low-key, realistic approach appears to have been effective in creating awareness of speeding as an issue and in triggering identification, empathy and reflection among the target group. This suggests that there is value in pursuing non-fear-based advertising approaches in the future. Furthermore, there is robust evidence that the campaign was associated with a change in attitudes towards speeding and in affective beliefs about speeding. In the context of what is known about the limitations of mass media advertising as a social change strategy, and the limited ability of the mass media to stimulate attitudinal and behavioural change, this should be seen as a worthwhile achievement, and one which provides a sound platform for further speeding interventions in Scotland.