From Cars to Carts: Increasing Safety Belt Usage in Shopping Carts

A modified reversal/ multiple-baseline design across three supermarkets was used to examine the effectiveness of behavioral interventions in increasing the frequency of safety belt usage in shopping carts. Following low baseline rates, safety belt usage increased significantly during a prompt plus personal contact condition at Stores 1 and 2. Safety belt usage then decreased, but remained above baseline levels, in a prompt alone condition at both stores. However, at Store 1, usage increased when the personal contact procedure was reintroduced but reversed to lower levels in a second prompt alone condition. Finally, social validity scales indicated that adult shoppers with children favored both safety belts on carts and the experimental procedures used in this study and said that they intended to use safety belts on carts in the future. Implications and directions for further research are briefly discussed.