title: Automatic imitation of risky behavior: a study of simulated driving in China.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Imitation of risky behaviors among drivers is a potentially dangerous threat to driving safety but is infrequently discussed in the existing literature. To enrich the understanding of drivers' imitation behaviors on the road, 2 experiments were designed for a simulated traffic environment.
  
  
  METHODS
  Safe and risky behaviors were demonstrated by model vehicles separately in the 2 experiments, and imitation behaviors of the participants were observed and analyzed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  From experiment 1 it was found that the following distance of participants (measured in time headway) was affected by the distance demonstrated by other vehicles on the road. The influence was stronger when the speed was low, and the participants imitated both risky and safe behavior models. When the speed was high, the participants tended to only learn safe behaviors. In experiment 2, when approaching yellow lights, it was examined whether a driver's decision (pass or stop) would be affected by the behavior of another vehicle (the model vehicle), which was designed to either pass through or stop at the intersection. When the model vehicle ran the yellow light, 65 percent of the participants did the same, even though they were 30 m behind the model vehicle. In contrast, if the model vehicle stopped at the intersection, only 25 percent of the participants decided to pass.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It was found that both novice and experienced participants had the tendency to imitate what they saw but were rarely aware of the influence by other drivers in both scenarios.
authors.affiliation: Department of Industrial Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jiyang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Duan
authors.forename: Zhizhong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Gavriel
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Salvendy
mesh_terms: D000054:Acceleration; D000328:Adult; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002681:China; D003198:Computer Simulation; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D008297:Male; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012449:Safety