The relationship between explicit and implicit attitudes towards drunk driving

Despite downward trends, driving under the influence (DUI) remains one of the most salient traffic safety problems. It is crucial to identify the processes behind a problem behaviour to target the most effective measures to address it. One way of exploring precursors of behaviour is measuring attitudes. All persons hold two types of attitudes, explicit and implicit. Although only one of these (explicit) lays the groundwork for current understandings of DUI, it is imperative to explore both types of attitudes. We explore the relationship between explicit and implicit attitudes towards DUI for the first time in the field. Explicit attitudes (what we say we mean) are measured by a questionnaire. Implicit attitudes (which are introspectively unidentified or inaccurately identified traces of past experience) are measured by the Go/No-go Association Task (GNAT) in a sample of young male drivers (n = 101). The results show a relationship between the two types of attitudes, but not completely in the expected way. Depending whether the amount of alcohol is over or under the legal limit, the relationship between explicit and implicit attitudes varies. We discuss the findings and provide directions for future investigations.