According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), (n.d.) distracted driving caused more than 3,000 deaths and over 390,000 injuries in 2015 alone (distracted driving section, para. 4). Public health officials could promote prevention and intervention strategies with the help of Social Marketing Theory, which utilizes marketing principals through targeted communications designed to voluntarily change a behavior in a demographic population (Edberg, 2015, p. 62). The issue of teen texting and driving along with other driver distractions has become an increasingly large traffic safety risk. The potential for a traffic accident is increased more than four times the normal risk when an individual voluntarily initiates, reads …show more content…
Furthermore, one study suggests that although young adults age 18 to 24, who are the largest population of self-reported distracted drivers, agreed that the dangers of texting and driving were evident after viewing fear-based advertising, many continued to report that they would continue to participate in the behavior (Lennon, Rentfro, & O’Leary, 2010, p. 106). Because of this “boomerang effect” and the mounting evidence that distracted driving causes substantial public safety issues it is imperative that public health addresses this critical …show more content…
The same study that found this effect also found a significant gender difference in the intent to continue distracted driving tendencies after viewing gritty videos. Women indicated that the graphic warning content was sufficient to change their behaviors (Lennon, Rentfro, & O’Leary, 2010, p. 106). Furthermore, the males in this study indicated that the graphic content “evoking stronger fear messages” should be utilized for more effectiveness and coupled with laws banning the use of handheld devices (Lennon, Rentfro, & O’Leary, 2010, p. 107). Several other studies have also supported the use of social marketing and the reality of driving distractedly resulting in unnecessary deaths. According to Kareklas and Muehling (2014), the most effective use of “mortality salience priming effects” was the use of videos with symbolic imagery, some skull and crossbones, superimposed over driving imagery (p. 243). Additionally, a study designed to test the strength of a variety of messaging outlets for the greatest impact found that younger drivers resonated with online videos indicating that they would most likely share them on social media outlets (Buccoliero, et al., 2016, p. 6). Taking these studies into consideration and knowing that young adults are more drawn to social media and