Motonormativity

{{Short description|Bias whereby car usage is seen as a social norm}}

File:1966 AMC Ambassador DPL ADV-blue.jpg

Motonormativity (also motornormativity, windshield bias, or car brain) is an unconscious cognitive bias in which the assumption is made that motor car ownership and use is an unremarkable social norm.{{cite journal | vauthors=Walker I, Tapp A, Davis A | title=Motonormativity: how social norms hide a major public health hazard | journal=International Journal of Environment and Health | volume=11 | issue=1 | date=2023 | doi=10.1504/IJENVH.2023.135446 | pages=21–33| doi-access=free | bibcode=2023IJEH...11...21W }}

Coinage

The term was coined by Swansea University psychologist Ian Walker, Alan Tapp and Adrian Davis in a 2023 UK study.{{cite news | vauthors=Walker P | title='Motonormativity': Britons more accepting of driving-related risk | newspaper=The Guardian | date=2023-01-17 | url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/17/motonormativity-britons-more-accepting-driving-related-risk }}{{cite web | vauthors=Hawkins AJ | title=Cars are rewiring our brains to ignore all the bad stuff about driving | website=The Verge | date=2023-01-31 | url=https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/31/23579510/car-brain-motornormativity-study-ian-walker }} The study was replicated in the US by Tara Goddard in 2024.

Description and significance

Motonormativity is not a bias confined just to motorists, but is a feature of car-centric societies.{{cite web | vauthors=Ro C | title='Motonormativity': The bias that leads to dangerous driving | website=BBC Home | date=2024-03-07 | url=https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240306-motonormativity-the-bias-that-stops-us-seeing-driving-clearly }} Walker has argued that a consequence of motonormative bias is that any attempt to reduce car use is not seen plainly for what it is, but interpreted as an attempt to curtail personal freedom. This effect has been documented not just in famously car dependent North America, but around the world.{{cite web | vauthors=Kaitlin T | title='Everyone has Car Brain' | website=Atlantic | date=2023-05-23 | url=https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2023/07/car-devotion-motor-vehicle-deaths-danger/674613/ }}

A 2024 study found that Americans displayed a significant "windshield bias," where participants were more accepting of negative externalities associated with cars compared to similar non-car scenarios.{{Cite journal |last=Goddard |first=Tara |date=2024-08-30 |title=Windshield Bias, Car Brain, Motornormativity: Different Names, Same Obscured Public Health Hazard |url=https://findingspress.org/article/122974-windshield-bias-car-brain-motornormativity-different-names-same-obscured-public-health-hazard |journal=Findings |language=en |doi=10.32866/001c.122974|doi-access=free }} This bias aligns with previous research in the UK, highlighting a pervasive societal tendency to overlook the public health hazards of car-centric systems.

Examples

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Walker has cited certain road safety campaigns targeting children as an example of motonormativity: by encouraging children to wear brightly coloured clothing to avoid being run over, such campaigns normalize the idea of motor traffic as an accepted danger others must adjust to, in a way which in other contexts would be considered victim blaming.

Motonormativity may affect planning decisions so that, for example, a new hospital is built outside a city even though that makes it less accessible to city dwellers who cannot drive or do not have a car.

Motonormativity

Coinage

Description and significance

Examples

See also

References

Further reading