Cleaning up our acts: Psychological interventions to reduce engine idling and improve air quality

Dominic Abrams; Fanny Lalot; Tim Hopthrow; Anne Templeton; Ben Steeden; Hilal Özkeçeci; Hirotaka Imada; Sarah Warbis; Dominic Sandiford; Rose Meleady; Emily Fell; Zoe Abrams; Alice Abrams; Qing Ngan Xue; Stephanie Celina; Alize Tanyeri; Molly Gammon; Benjamin Abrams; Liliann Fischer; Sophie Drysdale; Riska Dewi; Ana Leite; Ashley Mills; Stephen Peckham

Cleaning up our acts: Psychological interventions to reduce engine idling and improve air quality

Dominic Abrams, Fanny Lalot, Tim Hopthrow, Anne Templeton, Ben Steeden, Hilal Özkeçeci, Hirotaka Imada, Sarah Warbis, Dominic Sandiford, Rose Meleady, Emily Fell, Zoe Abrams, Alice Abrams, Qing Ngan Xue, Stephanie Celina, Alize Tanyeri, Molly Gammon, Benjamin Abrams, Liliann Fischer, Sophie DrysdaleRiska Dewi, Ana Leite, Ashley Mills, Stephen Peckham

Department of Psychology

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Abstract

A large-scale field experiment tested psychological interventions to reduce engine idling at long-wait stops. Messages based on theories of normative influence, outcome efficacy, and self-regulation were displayed approaching railway crossing on street poles. Observers coded whether drivers (N = 6049) turned off their engine while waiting at the railway crossings (only 27.2% did so at baseline). Automatic air quality monitors recorded levels of pollutants during barrier down times. To different degrees, the social norm and outcome efficacy messages successfully increased the proportion of drivers who turned off their engines (by 42% and 25%, respectively) and significantly reduced concentrations of atmospheric particulate matter (PM2.5) 2 m above ground level. Thus, the environment was improved through behavior change. Moreover, of both practical and theoretical significance, there was an ‘accelerator effect’, in line with theories of normative influence whereby the social norm message was increasingly effective as the volume of traffic increased.

Original language	English
Article number	101587
Journal	Journal of Environmental Psychology
Volume	74
Early online date	15 Mar 2021
Publication status	Published - 30 Apr 2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2021

Funding

Acknowledgement to Adam Britcher from the School of Psychology for technical support, and thanks to Ruth Goudie, Kelly Haynes and Richard Griffiths from Canterbury City Council for consultation regarding signage. The research was supported by a grant to The University of Kent from the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs , and Canterbury City Council which had no role in the conceptualization, design, data collection, analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Funders	Funder number
Canterbury City Council
UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
University of Kent

Keywords

Air quality
Field experiment
Outcome efficacy
Pro-environmental behavior
Self-regulation
Social norm

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Social Psychology
Applied Psychology

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Cleaning up our acts Paper.PDFAccepted author manuscript, 1.12 MBLicence: CC BY-NC-ND

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Abrams, D., Lalot, F., Hopthrow, T., Templeton, A., Steeden, B., Özkeçeci, H., Imada, H., Warbis, S., Sandiford, D., Meleady, R., Fell, E., Abrams, Z., Abrams, A., Xue, Q. N., Celina, S., Tanyeri, A., Gammon, M., Abrams, B., Fischer, L., ... Peckham, S. (2021). Cleaning up our acts: Psychological interventions to reduce engine idling and improve air quality. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 74, Article 101587.

Abrams, D, Lalot, F, Hopthrow, T, Templeton, A, Steeden, B, Özkeçeci, H, Imada, H, Warbis, S, Sandiford, D, Meleady, R, Fell, E, Abrams, Z, Abrams, A, Xue, QN, Celina, S, Tanyeri, A, Gammon, M, Abrams, B, Fischer, L, Drysdale, S, Dewi, R, Leite, A, Mills, A & Peckham, S 2021, 'Cleaning up our acts: Psychological interventions to reduce engine idling and improve air quality', Journal of Environmental Psychology, vol. 74, 101587.

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abstract = "A large-scale field experiment tested psychological interventions to reduce engine idling at long-wait stops. Messages based on theories of normative influence, outcome efficacy, and self-regulation were displayed approaching railway crossing on street poles. Observers coded whether drivers (N = 6049) turned off their engine while waiting at the railway crossings (only 27.2% did so at baseline). Automatic air quality monitors recorded levels of pollutants during barrier down times. To different degrees, the social norm and outcome efficacy messages successfully increased the proportion of drivers who turned off their engines (by 42% and 25%, respectively) and significantly reduced concentrations of atmospheric particulate matter (PM2.5) 2 m above ground level. Thus, the environment was improved through behavior change. Moreover, of both practical and theoretical significance, there was an {\textquoteleft}accelerator effect{\textquoteright}, in line with theories of normative influence whereby the social norm message was increasingly effective as the volume of traffic increased.",

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Cleaning up our acts: Psychological interventions to reduce engine idling and improve air quality

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

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