“Much human behavior is habitual. However, when external conditions change – for example as we seek to address emerging sustainability issues around all sorts of sectors (in transport, energy, biodiversity, climate change, public health, etc.) old habits may no longer be appropriate. In situations like this, we look to come up with social marketing campaigns to encourage people to change their practices. However, current research reminds us that the important take home point is that we can’t actually change other people’s behaviors, rather, they decide (or not) to change their own behavior.

People tend to agree with people they like. They also like people who like them and who they see as being like them. This is why companies often take care to use sales agents from within the community they are selling to. We are more likely to listen to people like ourselves, from friends, and from others that we know and respect. ”

–Ref: “BEHAVIOUR CHANGE COMMUNICATION” by WILL ALLEN (https://learningforsustainability.net/post/behavior-change/)

 

As we can learn from above, people’s behavior cannot be changed by other people or things, and can only actively change behavior after receiving the influence of other people or things. Also, people are more willing to follow the suggestions of people they like, loved one, family members.

 

“Your emotions affect the way you drive. Whether you are calm, anxious or hot-tempered strong emotions can interfere with your ability to think and reason. This reduces your ability to make safe decisions. It is a challenge to not let your emotions interfere with safe driving. Use good judgment, common sense, courtesy, and safe driving rules to ensure your safety and the safety of others.

Emotions like rage, intolerance and bad attitudes that can negatively affect your driving because they can cause you to concentrate on a single event and not your driving task. These bad habits frequently lead to Unsafe Speed – the number one cause of crash fatalities, aggressive and overly risky driving, as well as loss of control of your vehicle.

Recognize when you are not fit to drive. Your emotions also affect the way you relate to others. If you are in good condition emotionally, you will be able to judge whether your passengers are giving you good or bad driving advice. If you are upset, you may follow a friend’s bad advice because you are not thinking clearly. If you feel good, your judgment will be better than if you are angry.” — www.defensivedriving.com

 

According to my research, emotions are important factors that affect driving behavior. Emotions control your brain and indirectly control your behavior. Studies have shown that almost 90% of car accidents worldwide are caused by bad driving behavior. Driver characteristic is one of the factors contributing to road crashes. For instance, in other studies, there is evidence that driver’ motivations play an important role in the choice of driving in a certain manner by either promoting or preventing risky driving. Drivers who feel under time pressure and desire to reach their destination on time might be motivated to travel faster. Some drivers may also intend to choose a particular behaviour because of the belief that they are protected over their driving capability and confidence. Another factor which may be influencing driving behaviour is the tendency of some drivers seeing themselves as more experience than their fellow average drivers. Peer influences may encourage risky driving behaviour. For example, urging the driver to drive fast or when a driver perceived that the occupants would view fast driving behaviour as desirable. In study, argued that,  some drivers may engage in dangerous overtaking and crossing of other vehicles to impress others. A driver may possess all the good qualities in the context of the driving environment but when such qualities are allowed to influence driving behaviour, the probability of causing a crash is likely to be very high.

In summary, to change a person’s driving behavior and maintain a safe driving mind, one can only start from his subjective consciousness. Only when the individual wants to maintain safe driving behavior subjectively and his subjective consciousness controls his emotions, other environmental factors will not affect his emotions and thus mislead his behavior. So what is the key factor that controls its subjective consciousness? I think that reminders of loved ones, family members, and dissuasion are the most critical factors. Because we have realized that people are more willing to listen to the words of the people they like.

Therefore, my design will start with the reminder and dissuasion of the people they love. May use electronic components to design a set of circuits with sound prompts and trigger light flashes. Before entering the bad driving behavior, the driver can hear the dissuasion from the lover and the light-sensitive prompt to control his emotions, so as to reduce the bad behaviors such as speeding and rushing. For the sake of beauty and miniaturization, it is convenient to place it in the car and remind the driver at any time. I also plan to design a beautiful shape to wrap my design.

Compared with other similar designs on the market, the advantage of my design is that it can actively improve the driver’s subjective emotions, so that it can avoid bad driving behavior. And other products, almost all assist to inform the occurrence of bad driving behavior, and cannot effectively control the key factors that change driving behavior– emotions. I will test the same kind of friends who like speeding after the completion of my design prototype to see if they can improve their usual bad driving behavior.

 

Loved ones remind → Emotion control → Behavior control → safe driving → back to loved ones