Journal of Safety Research

Journal of Safety Research

Volume 56, February 2016, Pages 83-88
Journal of Safety Research

A pedestrian's smile and drivers' behavior: When a smile increases careful driving

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2015.12.005Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Pedestrian's smile on oncoming driver's behavior was examined.

  • Smile increased the number of drivers who stop at pedestrian crossings.

  • The same effect was observed when the pedestrian tried to cross outside the pedestrian crossing.

  • Motorists drove slower after a pedestrian smile.

Abstract

Introduction

Research has reported that smiles facilitate social relationships. However, the effect of a smile on driving behavior has received less interest.

Method

This study attempts to evaluate how a pedestrian's smile influences an oncoming driver's behavior. In the first part of our study, male and female research assistants waiting at several pedestrian crossings were asked to smile or not at oncoming drivers.

Results

It was found that a smile increases the number of drivers who stop. The same effect was observed when the pedestrian tries to cross outside the pedestrian crossing. Finally, this study shows that motorists drive slower after they see a pedestrian smile, suggesting that a smile can induce a positive mood.

Practical Applications

This leads to motorists stopping more readily and driving more carefully. These results also suggest that pedestrians may increase their own safety by using appropriate nonverbal signals toward drivers.

Section snippets

Smiling enhances positive social relationships

The positive effect of smiling on interpersonal attraction and perception has been consistently reported in the literature. Adding a smile to a facial photograph generally results in a more favorable perception of the stimulus reported by a person, and this effect is observed across multiple dimensions associated with physical appearance and personality traits. It has been reported that a smiling target is perceived to be more attractive (Reis et al., 1990). Smiling targets are also perceived

Objective of the study

In the present study, we decided to investigate whether a smile could influence other types of behavior associated with driving. In the first and the second experiments carried out in our study, we examine how a smile influences a driver's decision to stop to allow a pedestrian to cross a road. In a third experiment, we examined how a smile could influence the driver's speed. Based on previous studies reporting the positive effects of smiling, even though the effect of a smile on driving has

Participants

The participants included 1600 motorists (889 men and 711 women, who appeared by observation of their face to be aged between 20 and 70) driving in their cars in the middle of a town situated near the Atlantic coast in the West of France. The experiment took place between 2 and 5 p. m. on sunny days at the beginning of summer.

Procedure

Two undergraduate male students and two undergraduate female students served as research assistants in this study. Both were dressed in clothing typically worn by young

Results and discussion

The number of drivers who stopped is the only dependent variable in this study. The data are presented in Table 1.

Under the control condition, we find that 50.1% of drivers do not stop. This percentage is less than the 60% reported in a previous study (APR, 1998), with the difference being statistically significant (z = 7.92, p < .001). However, some time has passed since the 1998 study and changes in general driving behavior could explain this difference. Indeed, APR (1998) carried out their

Participants

The participants included 1200 motorists (672 men and 528 women, with ages [who appeared by observation of their face] to be between 20 and 60) driving their cars in several streets of a town situated near the Atlantic coast in the West of France. The experiment took place from 10 to 11 h30 a.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m. on sunny days at the beginning of summer. For better safety, the experiment was conducted in streets where the speed is limited to 30 km per hour (around 20 miles per hour) and with a

Results and discussion

The number of drivers who stop is the only dependent variable in this experiment. The data are presented in Table 2.

To account for the main effects of the variables, we performed a log-linear analysis with a 2 (driver gender) × 2 (research assistant gender) × 2 (experimental condition) design matrix, using the frequency of drivers who stop or not as the dependent variable. We find a significant main effect of the experimental condition (χ2 (1) = 21.35, p < .001, r = .13), revealing that, on the whole,

Objective of the third study

The objective of the third experiment is to examine further the effect of a smile on driver's behavior and explore in more detail the cognitive process that could explain the effect of smiling on stopping behavior. Indeed, some studies have reported that individuals who smile are perceived more favorably when being evaluated for their physical attractiveness (Reis et al., 1990) than for other different aspects of their personality (Lau, S., 1982, Otta, E, et al., 1996, Otta, E., et al., 1993).

Participants

The participants include 86 motorists (45 men and 41 women ranging in age [evaluated by observation of their face only] from 20 and 60 years) driving their cars in a street of a town situated near the Atlantic coast in the West of France (not the same town as in Experiments 1 or 2). The experiment took place from 10 to 11 h30 a.m. and from 2 to 4 p.m. on sunny days at the beginning of winter. For better safety, this experiment was conducted in streets where the speed is limited to 30 km per hour

Results and discussion

The speed of the driver is the dependent variable in this experiment. The data are presented in Table 3.

Under both experimental conditions, it is observed that the speed of the drivers is higher than the speed limit in the area where the experiment was carried out (30 km per hour). The difference is significantly different between the control condition (z = 14.49, p < .001) and the experimental condition (z = 17.08, p < .001).

We performed an analysis of variance (Anova) between groups using a 2 (driver

General discussion

The results of our experiments indicate that a smile influences driver behavior. At pedestrian crossings, significantly more drivers stop to allow a pedestrian to cross the street when he or she smiles at the driver. This positive effect of a smile on drivers' behavior is reported both with male and female drivers and both with male and female pedestrians. Experiment 2 also shows that the effect of the smile occurs even in areas with no pedestrian crossing where drivers are not obliged to give

Limitations and future studies

Evidently, these studies have some limitations. First, the three studies were conducted in France and cannot be generalized to other countries because of the specificity of cultural factors and driving regulations. Thus, cross-cultural replications would appear necessary. The experiments reported were conducted in areas with a low speed limit (50 km/h in Study 1 and 30 km/h in Study 2), so it will be interesting to test the effect of smiling in areas where the speed limit is higher. Nonverbal

Nicolas Guéguen is a professor of social behavior at the University of Bretagne-Sud. His research focuses on nonverbal behavior and social influence.

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    Nicolas Guéguen is a professor of social behavior at the University of Bretagne-Sud. His research focuses on nonverbal behavior and social influence.

    Sébastien Meineri is a associate professor of social psychology at the University of Bretagne-Sud. His research focuses on social influence and compliance-gaining procedure.

    Chloé Eyssartier is a researcher at the Cerema. Her research focuses on driving safety.

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