Traffic Tech #240: Targeting Young Female Drivers With Impaired Driving Messages |
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While alcohol-involved crashes and fatalities have dropped substantially over the past 15 years, the proportion of women involved has increased. In 1988, women comprised 22 percent of drivers involved in alcohol-related fatal crashes. Ten years later, in 1998, this percentage increased to 27 percent of the alcohol-related fatal crashes.
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Suggestions for reaching young women with anti-DWI messages
Techniques for Effective PSA
Techniques to Avoid
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The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation conducted a study for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to examine if impaired driving messages are tailored for women adequately. Using 13 public service announcements in various media formats, the study examined young women's perceptions of impaired driving messages. There were three questions: Should impaired driving messages be targeted differently for female drivers than male drivers? Which types of media are best for targeting female drivers? How do women respond to emotional, authoritative, and informational persuasive techniques?
Focus Groups
There were six focus groups held in the Washington, DC area and six more in Madison, Wisconsin in September and October of 1999. The average age of the 94 women was 26 years old. The Madison group were younger and
Involved more students; the Washington groups had more professionals. They all drove regularly and had drunk alcohol in the past month. The participants saw (or heard) 13 public service announcements (PSAs) that had been aired on television, radio, or in print.
Driving Habits and Attitudes
Participants characterized their driving as primarily during rush hour (60%), and mostly in medium to heavy traffic (52%) or light to medium traffic (34%). They thought of themselves as safe drivers, with most saying they took what they considered to be typical driving risks (61%) and close to a third (27%) said they thought they were more cautious than most drivers. Most (70%) wore a seat belt all the time. Two-thirds (65%), however, said they drove more than 15 miles per hour over the speed limit occasionally or very often. About half had been stopped for a traffic violation in the past three years, primarily for speeding.
The women in the focus groups thought that the alcohol-related behaviors of male drivers were quite different from their own. When they travel with a man, the man is more likely to be the driver, but this depends on their relationship to the male, who owns the vehicle, and personal preference. Several women mentioned that they often drove if their significant other had been drinking.
They often characterized female drivers as cautious and responsible and believe women are more aware of their surroundings when they are driving. Mothers are even more cautious when their children are in the vehicle. Several women said they took more driving risks when they were younger and that they thought younger men take more risks than older men.
Participants felt that women are more likely to plan ahead when drinking and more likely than men to find an alternate way to get home from bars or parties when they have had too much to drink. "Men are always okay to drive--at least to them. Women are more apt to say, I can't. Men don't want to admit they can't". The most common alternate way home was to have a designated driver, but this was often not planned ahead of time. It was frequently the person who happened not to drink that night or the one who had the least to drink that night. Only a handful of participants mentioned using taxis to get around after drinking.
General Impressions of Media
Although many of the participants felt there was too much media clutter to attend to any PSA, they said they paid more attention to television than other forms of media, and the least attention to radio. Some mentioned that visual images created a more lasting impression, and some mentioned billboards or magazine ads. Most were aware of local newspaper and television stories of recent tragedies caused by drunk drivers. A few mentioned that they read news and advertising on the Internet. Fliers sent in the mail generally were not read.
Findings
Virtually all participants said that emotional PSAs including children or death would be more effective with women than men. To the extent that emotional PSAs appeal more to women, men and women need to be targeted differently with impaired driving messages. A few felt very strongly that it was important for the PSAs to show graphically the consequences of drinking and driving. Some of the mothers, however, mentioned that they would not want the graphic PSAs on television while their children were watching. Generally, the women preferred real-life situations with real people, and the more the women could identify with people in the PSAs the better. Generally, they did not think that advertising had an effect on them. "I would be reached by seeing drunk driving victims my own age going out drinking and then being killed by a drunk driver. Might even change my behavior."
Some approaches were not accepted well by the participants. Using celebrities as spokespersons for impaired driving messages was not seen as effective, nor were authoritative PSAs well received. Women were skeptical of the celebrities' motives and had a hard time relating to them. Evidence on the use of humor in the messages was contradictory. Some said that humorous PSAs grabbed their attention, while others were put off by the humor because they thought it trivialized the message. Because many participants reported that they may not pay attention to any PSA, multiple approaches (for example, PSAs plus enforcement) for drunk driving is suggested.
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HOW TO ORDER For a copy of Evaluation of a Full-Time Ride Service Program: Aspen Colorado's Tipsy Taxi Service (29 pages), write to the Office of Research and Traffic Records, NHTSA, NTS-31, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20590, or fax (202) 366-7096, or download from http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov Amy Berning was the contract manager for this project. |
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