Ian WalkerJan 17, 2023

We have a new study out!

The short version is this: "Car Brain" - the cultural blind spot that makes people apply double standards when they think about driving - is real, measurable and pervasive.

Read on for more details... 1/14 @[email protected] @[email protected] @[email protected]

Show threadIan WalkerJan 17, 2023
This work was carried out with top-class humans @[email protected] and @[email protected]. We did something deliberately very simple: we had an independent polling agency contact a representative sample of 2157 people across the UK and ask them five questions 2/14
Show threadIan WalkerJan 17, 2023
Randomly, people either got questions about driving or they got the same set of questions with a couple of words changed so that they asked exactly the same things, but not about driving 3/14
Show threadIan WalkerJan 17, 2023

For example, half were asked if they agreed:

"People shouldn't drive in highly populated areas where other people have to breathe the car fumes"

and half got:

"People shouldn't smoke in highly populated areas where other people have to breathe the cigarette fumes"

4/14

Show threadIan WalkerJan 17, 2023

(We originally considered specific v general questions, e.g.,

"People driving cars in public places should be liable for any harm..."

"People operating machinery in public places should be liable..."

but decided that changing the context was neater and less subjective) 5/14

Show threadIan WalkerJan 17, 2023

Here's the full set of answers. As you can see, responses could change dramatically when driving was mentioned. All except Question 2 were hugely statistically different.

This doesn't make sense! The principle is the same in both forms of each question; only context changes 6/14

Show threadGary HouseJan 17, 2023

@ianwalker do you have any thoughts on Q2? I'd have expected a higher rate of disagreement since we, as a society, seem to expect high rates of food safety.

Also interesting to find that annual pedestrian deaths in the UK (~450) appear to be 2.5x those of food poisoning (~180). Maybe we do hold chefs to a higher standard than motorists.

Show threadIan Walker

@GaryHouse For the first, I'm not entirely sure why there was no difference, but I suspect it might be something to do with both being "others". Most people aren't in either group and probably don't know anyone who is.

For the second, it might be that we're exposed to more drivers' actions per day than cooks' actions?

Jan 17, 2023 at 6:04pmWeb
Show threadGary HouseJan 17, 2023

@ianwalker in context of the question as worded I suspect you are correct about the 'othering.' Referencing 'occupational health and safety' may also not register to respondents as specifically relating to 'road safety' for the delivery driver.

It would diverge from the format of all the other questions, but, I wonder what the results would be if 'occupational health and safety rules' was replaced with 'road safety' and 'food safety' rules respectively.