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Public Attitudes, Perceptions and Behaviours towards Cabin Safety Communications
Public Attitudes, Perceptions and Behaviours towards Cabin Safety Communications
Summary
This study provides an overview of aircraft cabin safety
communications in Australia, in terms of effectiveness, passenger
attitudes to such communications and opportunities that exist for
improvement.
Most passengers agreed that paying attention to cabin safety
communications is important. However, results revealed that
behaviours do not always match this perception. Perceived relevance
of safety information and frequency of travel were found to be
significant factors affecting passenger attitudes and behaviours.
High levels of message recognition, combined with excessive levels
of confidence in personal ability to perform safety actions may be
key drivers of reduced perceptions of relevance.
Passenger attention levels to safety communications were found
to be generally low. Of all communication types tested, the safety
briefing was most prone to perceptions of reduced relevance through
repeated exposure, while very low attention levels and perceptions
of content establish safety cards as being generally
ineffective.
Analysis identified that low levels of passenger attention to
safety communications results from overconfidence, superficial
familiarity with messages, issues relating to the way safety
content is presented, perceptions of substitutability between the
card and briefing and social norms present in the aircraft
cabin.
A framework for cognitive processing of cabin safety
communications is presented. The framework identifies that
passenger behaviours may be negatively influenced by perceptions
that it is socially undesirable to pay attention to safety
information. Changing normative and attitudinal beliefs represents
the greatest opportunity to improve communication
effectiveness.
Key opportunities are identified to improve cabin safety through
enhancement of communications. These recommendations include
tailoring communications to the needs of specific passenger
profiles, providing additional information to passengers, improved
design guidelines, regular content variation and use of
communications specialists in safety media design.
Download Complete Document:
b20040238 [
PDF: 815KB]
Type: Research and Analysis Report
Author(s): Andrew Parker, Synovate Pty Ltd
Publication Date: 13/07/2006