DALLAS, Aug. 31, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- You're driving
alone. You hear the ding of your smartphone. Do you grab it and
look at the screen?
The answer for more than 6-in-10 of us (64%) is
yes.1
Interestingly, the answer changes when we have company. In fact,
the same research shows that only 36% of drivers look at their
smartphone screens with passengers in the car.1 If
you're driving with a child in the car, only 30% look at their
screens.2
To learn why we make these choices, we look to behavioral
economics, a fascinating field of social science research that
examines why we do what we do.
And it's how we plan to take our It Can Wait campaign to
the next level in the coming months.
For starters, we're leveraging social science as the strategy
behind our latest advertising campaign. We created it to help all
of us see "driving alone" differently.
While we may be alone in the car, we are of course, never alone
on the road.
And while we may think we're only endangering ourselves if we
look at our smartphone screens behind the wheel, we're actually
putting everyone else on the road at risk. It's time to recognize
that our world is bigger than the inside of our car. Much bigger.
Our new advertising campaign explores just that—our paradoxical
behavior. You can see the new 30-second spot starting today and a
full-length film in coming days. Over the next few weeks, you'll
see this message across TV, print, radio, social and digital.
We're on a mission to show distracted driving is not only
dangerous, but wrong. Most everyone will admit it's
dangerous, but we must further open their eyes. It's an
inappropriate and selfish behavior.
Changing the social norm around distracted driving is
essential.
So we've enlisted some of the brightest minds in behavioral
economics and social psychology to help us uncover new insights and
test them in field trials. We hope they can help us convince
everyone to stop looking at their smartphone screens while
driving.
We're working with:
- Freakonomics, to test how technologies, including
smartphone apps and anonymized user data analysis, can help us
understand motivations and drive behavior change.
- ideas42, a nonprofit that applies behavioral science to social
problems. We'll team up with them to host a hackathon, bringing
together experts from the social sciences to develop cutting-edge
innovations we can test through real-world field trials.
- Icek Ajzen, a leader in the field of behavioral science, will
help us apply social and behavioral science insights to improve
existing program elements and messaging.
- Universities to tap into their behavioral studies programs for
ideas on new ways to tackle the problem.
I'm very excited about this new direction for It Can Wait. In the 6 years since AT&T
(NYSE: T) launched the campaign, we and our collaborators have
achieved many meaningful milestones on our journey to drive
awareness, pledges and app downloads. In addition, we're a founding
member of Together for Safer Roads Coalition (TSR). TSR brings
together global companies to help improve road safety and reduce
deaths and injuries from crashes.
But as smartphones and mobile apps have become ubiquitous,
distracted driving has become even more tempting and prevalent. So
we press on.
Please join the more than 2,500 organizations and tens of
thousands of individuals who are helping us spread the word.
It can, should and must wait!
1 Cellphone survey with 1,003 respondents conducted
by Braun Research. Survey fielded August
18-23, 2015. Nationally representative sample (ages 16-65,
drive and use smartphone apps).
2 Ongoing online survey with 623 respondents conducted
by Added Value. Data represented here was collected May 30-June 26, 2016. National panel sample (ages
15-54, drive and have a smartphone).
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SOURCE AT&T Inc.