The Airline Lifesaver: a 17-year analysis of a technique to prompt the delivery of a safety message.
BACKGROUND
The Airline Lifesaver (AL) is a 13.3 cm x 9.8 cm card any passenger can deliver to the attendant of a commercial airline in order to prompt the delivery of an important safety message. In particular, the AL requests the following safety--belt reminder be added to the regular announcements given at the end of the flight-"Now that you have worn a seat belt for the safest part of your trip, the flight crew would like to remind you to buckle-up during your ground transportation."


METHODS
The AL card was handed to 1,258 flight attendants over a 17-year period and compliance with the request for the safety message was systematically tracked. Slightly more than one-third of the AL cards (n=460) included an incentive for making the announcement.


RESULTS
Without the incentive, compliance to give the buckle-up reminder was 35.5% of 798 flights. With the incentive, compliance was significantly higher (i.e., 53.3%).


CONCLUSIONS
The validity of the AL intervention is discussed with regard to its: (a) relevance to cognitive dissonance and consistency theory, and (b) broad-based applicability as a component of community-wide efforts to facilitate a safety-focused culture. The 17-year study also demonstrated a practical and cost-effective application of a behavior-based incentive program.
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Department of Psychology, 213 Williams Hall, Blacksburg 24061-0436, USA. esgeller@vt.edu
E Scott
ES
Geller
Jeffrey S
JS
Hickman
Charles B
CB
Pettinger
D000328:Adult; D000401:Aircraft / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D019983:Guideline Adherence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D008402:Mass Media; D008875:Middle Aged; D012201:Reward; D012449:Safety / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012622:Seat Belts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014481:United States