Safe Speed Forums

Seeing as the government uses advertising to persuade people to their point of view I was wondering whether one could uses techniques from NLP to persuade people to drive better? A friend has used this technique to rid himself of impatience and road rage type feelings about other drivers quite easily. I am sure it could be applied to a greater amount of the population. It would certainly make for some interesting experiments. If you could get young drivers to get a sense of danger from it then I bet young people's accident rates would plummet.

The danger is it gets subverted so we all turn into clones that drive everywhere within the speed limit at all times

I'm not entirely sure I understand NLP properly, but your idea seems to strongly overlap with my posts in this thread:

Where do we learn to drive?

I'm interested there in the learning process and ways that it might be accelerated or otherwise improved.

Any improvement in drivers delivered out of information is inherently a "learning process".

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety

In a nutshell it could be a way of reprogramming the way people behave. I think it could be used more effectively for reducing people's bad habits eg bad lane discipline or whatever. NLP is designed around the idea that people have programs in their mind which dictate the way they behave eg when I'm late I drive aggressively. Take away the program that does this and the person will drive normally when they're late for something and therefore probably a lot more safely. It's not the best example in the I know but I hope that explains what I mean.

It could also be used for better learning methods like you suggest.

Try to find a copy of Sir John WHitmore's 'RAC Superdriver'.

I will. I've read his earlier book "The Winning Mind" and much of the stuff in there has stuck with me for nearly 20 years now!

I don't know if you read his column in the Motoring Section of the Telewag, it's a shame he tends to lean more towards politics than road safety and the psychology at which he is so well versed.

If he could focus his column more towards replacing the excellent (and much missed) one Paul Ripley used to write, and do some equally snappy articles on driving techniques (especially mental / attitude ones) it would be a world beater.

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CSCP Latin for beginners...
Ticketo ergo sum : I scam therefore I am!

Just a personal note here; NLP and other strategies can be used to change behaviour.

My own personal view is that we need to look at the cause of certain types of behaviour. Bad and especially inconsiderate/aggressive driving comes from a basic lack of respect for ones self and others. Cure this and you cure most of society's ills all together.

Unfortunately there is no quick cure for this as it starts and continues from the early years. However re-educating certain attitudes within individuals is usually only effective if they really want to be cured. If aggressive or risky behaviour brings "rewards" then it is unlikely that psych. techniques will have an impact.

This behaviour usually occurs without consequences (especially because of lack of enforcement presence - that camera debate again) so the "rewards" continue. Punishment only creates 'externalised' behaviours -but actual punishment & enforcement (police) presence ensures a constant risk of being punished which modifies behaviour.

To 'internalise' attitude that results in a change of behaviour requires a certain attitude to risk, to others, towards society, etc. I seem to be observing that things are getting worse, not better!

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Bill

All great journeys begin with a single step

I agree things are getting worse. I believe that's primarily because we're undermining the 'safety culture' with oversimplified messages. See this page:

http://www.safespeed.org.uk/roadsafety.html

Note that we have to consider the effect on population averages as well as the effects on individuals. I think it's the population averages that are getting hit by bad policy - yet it's better population averages that make our motorways four times safer than those in Belgium.

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Paul Smith
Our scrap speed cameras petition got over 28,000 sigs
The Safe Speed campaign demands a return to intelligent road safety