The Use of Self-Generated Imaginative Crash Scenarios Motivating Young Drivers to Engage in Hazard Perception Training

Road traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for young drivers across the globe, and past research has determined that the increased crash risk is partly due to the underdevelopment of hazard perception ability. A number of training methods have been developed in an attempt to increase this skill in drivers; however, no research to date has explored whether young drivers would be willing to voluntarily engage in this training if it was made available to them. The current research addresses this novel problem by identifying a major barrier to why drivers may not be motivated to engage in training. This is the young driver optimism bias of increased driving skill and lowered accident risk. This study explored whether de-biasing young drivers using a self-generated imaginative crash scenario intervention before training can increase voluntary engagement. It was hypothesised that participants who were given this crash scenario intervention would be de-biased, and would therefore subsequently engage in a greater number of training exercises compared to participants in a control generation group, and also participants in a yoked-control group, who were made to read one of the scenarios, as self-generation is predicted to be necessary for de-biasing to occur. Additionally, it was hypothesised that participants in the scenario generation group would improve their hazard perception prediction times more after training compared to the control and yoked-control groups, as these participants were expected to engage in the most amount of training. Contrary to predictions, no de-biasing had occurred, and there were also no difference between the groups in the number of exercises completed. However, results did reveal that participants who were at least exposed to a crash scenario improved their hazard prediction times more after training compared to those who were not. Reasons for these findings are explored and directions for future studies are discussed