A pedestrian’s stare and drivers’ stopping behavior: A field experiment at the pedestrian crossing

International audienceNearly 25% of the pedestrians who died in Europe were hit by a car while at a pedestrian crossing. In this study, we tried to evaluate how a pedestrian’s stare influenced an oncoming driver’s stopping behavior at a pedestrian crossing. Male and female confederates waiting at several pedestrian crossings were asked to either stare at oncoming drivers or to look just above the drivers’ heads. It was reported that staring increased the number of drivers who stopped. This effect was found both with male and female drivers and with male and female confederates. These results suggested that pedestrians could increase their own safety by using appropriate nonverbal signals toward driver