Measuring Explicit and Implicit Social Status Bias in Car vs. Bus Mode Choice

With results from an Implicit Association Test (IAT) and sociodemographic, travel behavior, and Likert-scale survey questions, the authors investigate implicit and explicit social status biases in the context of mode choice between car and bus. Using a novel two-part experimental design, the differences between implicit and explicit measures of bias are examined to understand how the IAT may complement or improve upon traditional survey methods to capture attitudinal biases. The authors find that explicit agreement with positive and negative statements about social status may fail to capture subconscious biases that play a role in individual travel behavior (i.e. mode choice). The authors corroborate previous research into the idea of pride as a factor in explaining car mode choice as well as propose a new way to quantify these inherent or implicit social status biases that are controversial or difficult to consciously identify and articulate. With this as their case study, the authors introduce the IAT as a method for better understanding the subconscious biases that influence travel behavior and policy preference.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB10 Standing Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Moody, Joanna
  • Goulet-Langois, Gabriel
  • Alexander, Lauren
  • Campbell, Jonathan
  • Zhao, Jinhua
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 95th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2016-1-10 to 2016-1-14
• Date: 2016

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p
• Monograph Title: TRB 95th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Attitudes; Automobile travel; Bus transit; Mode choice; Social factors; Travel behavior
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01593638
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 16-5014
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 15 2016 10:14AM