Mimicry and stop sign compliance

• Published in: Transportation research. Part F, Traffic psychology and behaviour Traffic psychology and behaviour, 2018-02, Vol.53, p.93-98
• Main Authors: Gilbey, Andrew, Tani, Kawtar
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Compliance; Mimicry; Stop sign; Traffic accidents & safety; Traffic conflicts; Traffic control; Traffic flow
• ISSN: 1369-8478; 1873-5517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2017.12.013

•Low rate of stop sign compliance (17%).•Following a stop sign dissenter makes compliance less likely.•Following a stop sign complier does not make compliance more likely.•The observed pattern of findings suggests dissent rates may increase over-time. Many road-users fail to comply with the stop sign rule, potentially increasing the chance of accidents at junctions. Within a social-cognitive framework, we investigated whether the behaviour of traffic in front influences road-user’s stop sign compliance, focussing in particular on whether the notion of mimicry is useful in explaining rates of stop sign dissent. In the absence of conflicting traffic, road-users were significantly (p = .012, Φ = 0.083) less likely to stop if traffic in front did not stop (of n = 535, 11% stopped), compared to when there was no traffic in front (of n = 369, 16.8% stopped). However, there was no evidence of mimicry when traffic in front did stop (19.3% stopped), compared to when no vehicle was in front (16.8% stopped) (p = .720, Φ = 0.033). If road-users mimic negative behaviours rather than positive ones, over time it is likely that the rate of non-compliance will increase. The findings and directions for future research are discussed.