The use of videos in road safety training: Cognitive and emotional effects

► We have investigated the effects of viewing crash live videos and verbal commentary. ► We found that the viewers’ emotional response to crash live videos depends on whether a verbal commentary is also presented. ► When videos are presented without a verbal commentary they are experienced as not instructive. ► The use of videos may be effective for road safety education programs, as far as they are not presented alone. The aim of the study was to evaluate the use of videos in educational programs for improving road safety. Particularly, we evaluated the cognitive and emotional effects of viewing videos taken from cameras placed along Italian highways and showing car crashes or traffic flow images. One hundred and seventy students from the Sapienza University of Rome participated in the study as volunteers. Each participant was randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups (“Video”, “Video plus commentary”, “Written Description”). Results showed that the overall emotional activation was significantly higher in the two conditions that employed live video (both with and without verbal explanations). However, scores on the Information dimension were significantly higher in the conditions that contained only verbal descriptions or that combined video and verbal explanations. Results of this experiment suggest that live videos of car crashes have the primary feature of inducing a high emotional activation (especially when they represent action scenes, as car crashes) that can be modulated by co-occurring verbal explanations. When these videos are not integrated by an appropriate verbal explanation, they can be experienced as not fully instructive.