Case Study: The Honest Truth
continued...
Website developments
Website/social media traffic – It was agreed during the KEC that there are benefits to ADI’s encouraging their
learners to like, follow and interact with social media activity linked to the approach. Social media allows contact
with these individuals to be maintained once they have progressed to the post-learner phase – a crucial time
when good behaviours may be cemented, but bad behaviours may be learned. Keeping in touch also makes
it easier for follow-up work to take place, such as evaluation. The Honest Truth can then encourage individuals
to review their behaviour periodically, for example, when they ask them if they have stuck to their pledge and
achieved their goals so far. If they have not, they could be asked to think about why that is and how they can find
the help they need.
Personal consequences - It makes sense to provide information relating to personal consequences such as
collision, death and injury, as well as the legal consequences, as the The Honest Truth website does. Different
individuals will be persuaded by different types of logic, so it is (we agree) best to cover all angles and maximise
the chances that everyone will find some motivation to change their problematic behaviours. Individuals can
also be encouraged to think about the rewards that they will experience if they drive safely and how they
compare to the harms that could result from adopting risky behaviours. These suggestions draw on behaviour
change techniques – more of which can be found on page 22. In an imminent refresh of the website content,
additional videos highlighting these issues are due to be included.
What can you do? – Young people can often find engagement with education and experts to be
disempowering, so sections like the ‘what can you do to be a good driver’ area of the The Honest Truth website
are particularly welcome. We support the empowering nature of the title (what can you do = you can do
something) as well as the strategies that involve a driver being encouraged to exert control over their car, as set
out in the ‘Your rules’ section.
Personal stories - The Honest Truth website provides multiple stories of personal experiences, showing that
the issues and their consequences are not ‘one-offs’ or isolated or unfortunate events. This is a useful tactic
for persuading those who may think that the risks are overstated or that ‘it won’t be me’. It is also useful that
the case studies are fronted by experts with many years’ experience of dealing with crash after crash, but still
clearly emotionally affected by their experiences. Given the focus of the intervention, some forthcoming videos
featuring young people are planned, as these are more likely to resonate with the young viewers, who may be
able to identify more strongly with the situations portrayed.
Pledge – The pledge is an important part of the website as it links to a number of behaviour change techniques.
When encouraging pledge-making as part of an approach, it must be clear how and where that can be done,
and we would suggest that there are opportunities to personalise the wording to whatever particular behaviour
the person making the pledge needs to address (‘I will not make calls’, ‘I will not check social media’ for
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