PANEL MEETING LOGISTICS

Potential panelists for the expert meeting were identified via the literature review, self-referral in response to messages posted on relevant electronic mailing lists, recommendations from subject matter experts, and targeted searches for the experts in a particular field. A wide range of panelists were invited to attend the meeting; NHTSA’s goal was to assemble a diverse group of subject matter experts who could each contribute a unique perspective to the discussion. If a potential panelist declined the invitation, the research team asked him/her to recommend others in that field who might be interested in participating. Ultimately, the panel included a cognitive psychologist, a professor in the field of communication studies, the director of an academic center on risk communication, a researcher in the field of human judgment and decision making, an academic social and personality psychologist, a social marketer, an academic social psychologist, and an analytic psychotherapist in private practice. See Appendix A for a complete list of panelists and their affiliations.

Panelists were offered a stipend for their participation and were reimbursed for travel expenses and room accommodations. All panelists were provided with a copy of the literature review to read prior to the meeting.

The panel meeting took place on September 12, 2005, in Washington, DC, and was audio recorded and later transcribed. The meeting began with an overview of the topic provided by the NHTSA Project Officer. In the morning session, panelists discussed the nature of situational safety belt use and their experiences related to unconscious motivators. In the afternoon session, panelists discussed how to overcome unconscious motivators and generated ideas for NHTSA pertaining to the specific case of safety belts. The meeting agenda appears as Appendix B to this report. The meeting was relatively unstructured because of the novelty of this research approach and NHTSA’s desire to generate new ideas. At the end of the meeting, the panelists and the NHTSA moderator agreed that this approach accomplished its mission of identifying new ways to encourage belt use. The meeting resulted in several suggestions for how to encourage belt wearing.