You never have to dig deep to find the latest news about fatal car crashes on UK roads. After devastating events such as the July 2024 crash in West Yorkshire that killed four adults and two children, media reports often focus on the need for better law enforcement and driver education.

Safety campaigns can only work if people recognise that the message is important to them and decide to change their behaviour. However, psychological research shows that many people are overconfident in their driving skills and believe that it is “normal” to drive carelessly and break traffic rules.

The number of people killed or seriously injured on UK roads has remained fairly constant since 2012. Five people die and around 80 are seriously injured every day. Imagine the public outrage if the murder rate reached that level. There seems to be a level of public acceptance of the inevitability of road deaths, which affects drivers’ attitudes towards ‘acceptable law-breaking’ when driving.

Scientists call the tendency for people to normalize unsafe driving practices on a social level motornormativity. It’s an unconscious bias in which people are more tolerant of the risks associated with driving than they are of other activities. A 2023 U.K. study found that 61% of people agreed that risk was a “natural part of driving,” compared with just 31% who agreed when the word “driving” was changed to “work.”

This normalisation of driving risk is reflected in attitudes towards breaking road rules. UK government statistics from 2022 show that 50% of drivers exceeded the speed limit on a sample of 30mph roads. The RAC’s Roadside Damage Group’s 2023 annual motoring report found that 25% of drivers admitted to regular, illegal phone use.

It’s easy to assume this is because people don’t fully understand the risks involved, but the report also found that 95% of drivers agree that people who use mobile phones while driving are putting the lives of others at risk.

Motor normativity may explain why some believe new road safety measures are in fact an attempt to make money off the public rather than being based on safety. The 20mph default speed limit introduced in Wales in 2023 was met with widespread opposition.

This is despite evidence that the new speed limit has improved safety, with the number of reported collisions on these roads falling by 17% since the change was introduced. The introduction of seat belt laws in 1983 initially provoked a similar negative reaction.

Such biases also influence driver attitudes and behaviors, including the tendency for most drivers to consider themselves to have above-average skills. This inflated self-confidence is not necessarily related to increased skill or experience, as even novice drivers demonstrate this self-improvement.

Most drivers also underestimate their chances of being involved in a collision because they believe they are more skilled. And every time a driver breaks the law without any apparent consequences, they are confirming their view that they are above average and that the law is “safe” to break. This phenomenon is known as confirmation bias.

These prejudices help explain why drivers show strong support for road rules despite breaking them themselves. They believe that the rules should be enforced against other, less competent drivers. The poor driving of other drivers and their breaking of road rules is consistently rated as a problem for drivers in the UK, while research shows that those who lack self-awareness about driving tend to be worse drivers.

The combination of these biases leaves us in a difficult situation. We have unacceptable rates of road deaths and injuries caused by speeding, distraction and impairment caused by alcohol and drugs. Yet most drivers do not recognise that their behaviour is part of the problem. This is compounded by research showing that drivers who speed or use their phones are often unaware that their driving performance is being impaired.

So how can we change driving behavior?

Traditional behavior-changing approaches can actually reinforce driver prejudices. Safety campaigns that use photos and videos of other drivers’ crashes to shock or provoke an emotional response have no effect because many drivers simply don’t believe it will happen to them. Campaigns that try to shame drivers into following the law (e.g., “your friends will judge you for speeding”) don’t work when driving violations are normalized as “not real crimes” because “everyone does it.”

Headlines like “Man Killed by Truck” distance the driver from responsibility and reinforce the idea that road collisions are inevitable. Similarly, using the word “crash” to describe collisions suggests that they are inevitable. In reality, speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, using a phone, and not wearing a seat belt—all of which can be avoided—are leading causes of road deaths.

To change behavior, we need a balance between education, policy and enforcement.

Campaigns could address the issue of self-improvement directly, without damaging drivers’ egos, by making them aware that even really good drivers have accidents.

In May 2024, Labour MP Kim Leadbeater introduced a graduated licensing bill to Parliament that could include a zero alcohol limit for new drivers and control the number of passengers young drivers can carry on their probationary driving test. Evidence-based changes to laws and policies like this, which reject the idea that road damage is inevitable, could significantly reduce road deaths and injuries.

This article is reprinted from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.