While most people agree that texting and driving is dangerous, many admit to doing it anyway.
In a survey of frequent drivers sponsored by AT&T, 98 percent said they were aware of the dangers of texting behind the wheel, but still text daily regardless of where they are. More than a quarter of those surveyed believed they “can easily do several things at once, even while driving.”
AT&T Inc. released the survey on Wednesday, Nov. 5 as part of their anti-texting-and-driving campaign. They designed the survey with David Greenfield, founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction and a professor at the University of Connecticut’s School of Medicine.
The telephone study of 1,004 callers, conducted in May, was of cellphone owners ages 16 to 65, who drive almost every day and text at least once a day. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.
Researchers also believe that it’s possible that those surveyed who would have picked up on a landline might have different views, and attitudes among those who don’t text as often might also be different.
Greenfield said the survey is the latest to show a discrepancy between people’s attitudes and behaviors.
The data also revealed a broad range of reasons why drivers actively text. 43 percent said they wanted to “stay connected” to friends, family, and work. Nearly a third of those surveyed said it was purely habit, and more than a quarter believe that their driving performance is not affected by texting.
In addition, 28 percent said they are worried about missing something important if they don’t check their phones right away. 6 percent simply answered they are “addicted to texting.”
Reggie Shaw was just 19 years old in 2006 when he caused a car accident while texting, killing two. Today, he actively speaks out against texting and driving.
“It’s something I struggle with every day,” Shaw said. “I know that I need to go out and talk to others about it. I don’t want others to make the same mistake I did.”
A vital part of its campaign, AT&T also recently developed a free app that silences text message alerts and activates automatically when a person is moving 15 mph or faster. The DriveMode app is coming to iPhones after previously being available on Android and BlackBerry phones for AT&T users only. The iPhone version of the app will be available to customers of other phone carriers as well, but some of its functions will work only on AT&T devices.
Greenfield, who studies the effects of digital technology on the brain, often calls smartphones “the world’s smallest slot machines” because they affect the brain in similar ways that gambling or drugs can.
“Dopamine levels increase as you anticipate messages, and that leads to higher levels of pleasure. Getting desirable messages can increase dopamine levels further,” he said. “[Texting and driving] is particularly dangerous because it’s ongoing and there is an anticipatory aspect to it.”
Greenfield said people should not use their phone at all while driving, but admits that this might not be realistic. In the end, he agreed that apps, public education and laws banning texting and driving will all help to change people’s behavior, just as anti-drunken-driving laws and public education campaigns have reduced drunken driving over the past few decades.
(With reports from Associated Press)
