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 threadSterling BaldwinJan 17, 2023
@ianwalker I suspect the reason Question 2 got the response it did, is because it’s about other (working class, i.e. poor) people driving. The thing about carbrain is that it mutes people’s empathy, so I actually think the answer is totally inline with the rest of the results.
Show threadIan WalkerJan 17, 2023
@lbSterling Or perhaps, as somebody else just suggested on here, it could be because those questions explicitly mention rules being broken?
Show threadSterling Baldwin
@ianwalker perhaps, although I suspect that if it was worded, "you're working as a delivery driver and need to park illegally to make a drop off" and "you're working as a chef and need to cut a few health code laws" that the result would be closer to the other questions. Personal bias: I hate cars and think they make people into worse versions of themselves.
Jan 17, 2023 at 6:28pmWeb