THE INFLUENCE OF SAFE DRIVING PUBLIC SERVICE COMMERCIALS ON DRIVERS' BEHAVIOR DEPENDING ON THEIR SENSATION SEEKING LEVEL

It has been proved, that those at road risk are individuals with high sensation seeking (SS) level - a personality trait defined by M. Zuckerman. High SS prefer public service announcements (PSAs) of high message sensation value (MSV). Thus, it is worth to investigate, how the highly arousing PSAs actually affect drivers, according to their SS level. Hypothesis: young adult drivers will be less willing to take risk in traffic situations after watching high MSV safety driving PSAs. One hundred car drivers aged 18 - 30 took part in the experiment. Male - 62; female - 31. Participants completed the, Brief sensation seeking scale". After, in the 1st experimental group they watched a video with 3 low sensation value safety driving PSAs, in the 2nd - with 3 highly arousing PSAs, in control - with no PSAs. Participants then performed "Vienna Risk-Taking Test Traffic". Both SS beta=0,45*** and PSAs beta = - 0,28** have a statistically significant impact on the willingness to take risk in traffic, p<0,01. The results show that highly arousing safety driving PSAs reduce the willingness to take risk in traffic.