Risk-mitigating beliefs, risk estimates, and self-reported speeding in a sample of Australian drivers.

PROBLEM Research suggests that people who engage in risk-taking behaviors often hold specific beliefs that can mitigate or reduce their perceptions of risk associated with those behaviors. METHOD A scale was developed (Speeding Risk Belief Scale (SRBS)) to assess beliefs about speeding-related risk and predict self-reported speeding in a random-digit telephone survey of 800 South Australian drivers between the ages of 16 and 50. RESULTS The scale was internally consistent, and path analyses showed it to be associated with self-reported speeding, both directly and indirectly through participants' estimates of speeding-related risk. DISCUSSION Origins of risk-mitigating beliefs and the extent to which they may be causally linked with speeding are discussed, and recommendations are made for future research. IMPACT ON INDUSTRY This research has strong implications for the conduct of countermeasure campaigns that disseminate information on speeding-related risk.

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