RAPID: A real-world opportunity to study responsibility, social identity, signaling, and collective mobilization

最近被曝光的汽车制造商使用所谓的“减效装置”来规避美国和其他国家的柴油车排放标准，揭示了公众健康和环境面临的前所未有的威胁。据估计，这些车辆排放的污染物增加，造成了超过1亿美元的可避免的医疗费用，仅在美国每年就有多达40-100人额外死亡。乍一看，解决这个问题的办法似乎很简单：修复目前在路上行驶的大约50万辆汽车，从而解决对环境和健康的影响。面临的挑战是，这些车辆都是私人拥有的，对他们来说，维修可能会带来巨大的个人成本，包括拥有成本的增加、转售价值的降低、车辆性能的下降和个人享受的减少。因此，“失效装置”问题是一个集体行动问题，其中许多个人必须独立行动，以解决对公众健康和环境的威胁。这个项目探讨了这些车主对这一意想不到的集体行动问题的行为和心理反应，试图回答三个关键问题。首先，影响个人愿意采取行动来面对由他人引起的问题的关键因素是什么？其次，对于那些受到挑战个人和社会身份的事件影响的人来说，情感和行为上的影响是什么？第三，如果人们有机会公开让别人知道他们正在采取行动，这会促进行为改变并影响他们的情绪健康吗？为了回答这些问题，研究小组将接触受影响车辆的车主，并在一年内进行两次调查。调查将调查车主对这一问题的反应和回应，包括他们对是否以及何时维修车辆的决定。此外，该项目还探讨了如果一种不可见的行为——无论是汽车已经修好还是仍在污染环境——可以通过向其他司机提供一些“信号”（如汽车贴纸）而变得可见，人们的意图可能会发生怎样的变化。通过研究这些心理过程，该项目可能会产生关于人类决策的实用见解，可用于解决当前和未来的集体行动问题。这项纵向研究所获得的知识将揭示人们如何做出既有个人成本又能产生社会效益的决定，并可能导致更有效的策略的发展，以帮助人们做出对自己和社会都有利的决定。

Recent revelations regarding car manufacturers' use of so-called "defeat devices" to skirt U.S. and other nations' diesel vehicle emissions standards have revealed a previously unanticipated threat to public health and the environment. By some estimates, the increased pollutants being emitted by these vehicles are causing in excess of $100 million in avoidable health care costs and as many as 40-100 extra deaths per year in the U.S. alone. The solution to the problem appears straightforward at first glance: fix the roughly 500,000 vehicles currently on the roads and thus address the environmental and health impacts. The challenge is that those vehicles are owned by private citizens for whom the fix will likely incur significant personal cost, including increased costs of ownership, reduced resale values, degraded vehicle performance and reduced personal enjoyment. Thus, the "defeat device" issue is a collective action problem in which many individuals must act independently to resolve the threat to public health and the environment. This project explores the behavioral and psychological responses of these vehicle owners to this unanticipated collective action problem in an effort to answer three key questions. First, what are the key factors that influence individuals' willingness to take action to confront a problem caused by someone else? Second, what are the emotional and behavioral implications for people who are personally affected by an event that challenges their personal and social identities? Third, if people are given an opportunity to publicly let others know that they are taking action, does that promote behavior change and affect their emotional well-being?To answer these questions, the research team will reach out to owners of the affected vehicles and conduct two surveys across a year. The surveys will examine owners' reactions and responses to the issue, including their decisions about whether and when to have their vehicles repaired. In addition, the project explores how people's intentions might change if a behavior that is otherwise invisible-- whether one's car has been repaired or still polluting--could become visible, by providing some "signal" to other drivers such as a car sticker. By examining these psychological processes this project may produce practical insights about human decision-making that could be used to address this and future collective action problems. Knowledge gained by this longitudinal study will shed light on how people make decisions that carry personal costs but also produce societal benefits, and possibly lead to the development of more effective strategies to help support people in making decisions that are beneficial both for themselves and for society.