Motivating Safety Belt Use with Incentives: A Critical Review of the Past and a Look to the Future

Incentive strategies are playing a primary role in the current nationwide effort to increase the regular use of safety belts in the U.S. The emphasis on incentives developed from several recent research projects which demonstrated marked increases in safety belt usage following the provision of reward opportunities for safety belt wearers. Rewards for safety belt wearing have been immediate or delayed, and direct or indirect, and they have been offered in a variety of environmental settings (e.g., at industrial parking lots, bank exchange windows, fast food restaurants, and traffic intersections). Some incentive-based programs have been implemented throughout entire communities, while others have occurred at particular locations of program sponsors (e.g., banks, schools, corporations, universities). The intervention techniques and outcomes of 28 incentive-based programs are reviewed in this paper, along with discussions of issues needing further research attention. This paper also reviews the impact of certain variables which have influenced the beneficial impact of incentive-based safety belt programs.