TITLE:
Exploring the Effectiveness of Distracted Driving PSA (Public Service Announcement)
AUTHORS:
Valene Bummara, Jinbong Choi
KEYWORDS:
PSA (Public Service Announcement), Districted Driving, Third-Person Effect
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Journalism and Communication,
Vol.3 No.4,
December
7,
2015
ABSTRACT: The issue of “distracted driving” has been a popular topic in research and the subject of numerous
campaigns and laws. Fear appeals have commonly been utilized to prevent people, adolescents
mainly, from engaging in such behavior. This paper examines the impact that a public service announcement
featuring a fear appeal to discourage distracted driving has on the perceptions and
intentions of a sample (N = 102) of Texas State University students. The students viewed a thirtysecond
PSA before completing a self-report questionnaire. Responses were analyzed to gauge the
effectiveness of the PSA and look for the presence of gender differences and the third-person effect
within the sample. This study focused specifically on the distracted behavior of text messaging
while driving. Overall, students expressed the opinion that the PSA was believable and somewhat
useful for preventing texting while driving. In line with past literature, males and females in this
sample responded differently to the message, with females being more responsive. Contrary to
past research, this study did not find support for the third-person effect.