Smile power 1: smiley faces save lives

Quick bonus bit of behavioural economics from Rory's talk last week, showing the power of the smiley.

In South Lanarkshire there are 226 Vehicle Activated Signs that don't just tell drivers their speed, but show them a smiley or sad face, depending on whether they're under or over the limit. 

 

It's a basic rule of human behaviour that we enjoy making people happy and prefer to avoid making them sad (with the possible exception of Simon Cowell), but it may still surprise you how effective a reward a smile can be.   Thanks to these little faces, the number of people exceeding the speed limit in the Lanarckshire area fell by 53%.  And when you realise that these things operate at about 2% of the cost of a speed camera, there's even more reason to be cheerful.

So there we have it.  Smiley signs: an effective, context driven, personalised piece of communication (driven by on the spot data capture).  Just the kind of solution our industry should be coming up with, hey?  And I think that was Rory's point entirely.

Comments

[Peter Banister]

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[asics tiger]

Wether we like it or not, all of our fortunes are tied together. We are truly interdependent.