Environmental Changes and Dynamics of a Network of Social Representations

Autores

Carine Pianelli PsyAction – Consulting firm on psychosocial risk assessment and management
Farida Saad French institute of science and technology for transport, development and networks (IFSTTAR); Laboratory of Social Psychology, University of Aix-Marseille

social representations, anchoring, representational dynamics, acceptability, speed, intelligent speed adaptation, automatic speed controls

This research aims to study the transformation of a network of social representations

(representations of Speed, Speed Limit and the emerging representation of a driving aid:

the LAVIA system) following the occurrence of an irreversible event: the introduction of

Automatic Speed Controls (ASCs) in France. Two surveys were carried out, before and

after the introduction of ASCs, on a representative sample of drivers living in the LAVIA

experimental area. The questionnaire included free and hierarchical associations (Study

1: N=1005; Study 2: N=281). The findings indicate that the structuring of the emerging

representation of LAVIA and its acceptability by drivers depend on pre-existing

representations within the social environment: the representations of Speed and Speed

Limit. The introduction of ASCs results in the adoption of new driving practices that lead

to the transformation of each representation belonging to the same network of social

representations.