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Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity

Ian Walker Orcid Logo, Marco te Brömmelstroet

Global Environmental Change, Volume: 91, Start page: 102980

Swansea University Author: Ian Walker Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102980

Abstract

Motonormativity is a shared bias whereby people judge motorised mobility differently to other comparable topics. This works against societies addressing climate and public health crises effectively. A social-ecological explanation has been suggested for the phenomenon, in which motonormativity is sh...

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Published in: Global Environmental Change
ISSN: 0959-3780
Published: Elsevier BV 2025
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68899
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spelling 2025-02-17T10:26:35.4760550 v2 68899 2025-02-17 Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity ac9a28ab033f55f1a469ab76e12feb96 0000-0002-0079-3149 Ian Walker Ian Walker true false 2025-02-17 Motonormativity is a shared bias whereby people judge motorised mobility differently to other comparable topics. This works against societies addressing climate and public health crises effectively. A social-ecological explanation has been suggested for the phenomenon, in which motonormativity is shaped by people’s environments, but this has not been tested. Here we used a large international sample (N = 2035) and novel within-participants testing to show, for the first time, at least two environmental pathways linked to judgement biases: one related to people’s social surroundings and linked with their explicit views on transport, and a separate, more implicit pathway related to higher-level structural influences such as nationality, and living in rural areas. Additionally, respondents dramatically underestimated public support for non-motorised transport relative to their own, a pluralistic ignorance effect likely reflecting another facet of motonormativity. The social-ecological explanation, with its nested environmental influences, helps explain the ‘stickiness’ of automobility, and implies change will be most likely when multiple facets of a person’s social, physical and cultural surroundings align in supporting non-motorised mobility. Journal Article Global Environmental Change 91 102980 Elsevier BV 0959-3780 Transportation; Travel mode change; Motonormativity; Social-ecological model; Pluralistic ignorance; Behaviour change 1 5 2025 2025-05-01 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102980 COLLEGE NANME COLLEGE CODE Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) Swansea University 2025-02-17T10:26:35.4760550 2025-02-17T10:18:33.3945284 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Ian Walker 0000-0002-0079-3149 1 Marco te Brömmelstroet 2 68899__33598__e5f27c5edbb845fba11e4db2d2d30072.pdf 68899.VoR.pdf 2025-02-17T10:21:16.0765958 Output 1235238 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2025 The Author(s). This is an open access article under the CC BY license. true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity
spellingShingle Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity
Ian Walker
title_short Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity
title_full Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity
title_fullStr Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity
title_full_unstemmed Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity
title_sort Why do cars get a free ride? The social-ecological roots of motonormativity
author_id_str_mv ac9a28ab033f55f1a469ab76e12feb96
author_id_fullname_str_mv ac9a28ab033f55f1a469ab76e12feb96_***_Ian Walker
author Ian Walker
author2 Ian Walker
Marco te Brömmelstroet
format Journal article
container_title Global Environmental Change
container_volume 91
container_start_page 102980
publishDate 2025
institution Swansea University
issn 0959-3780
doi_str_mv 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2025.102980
publisher Elsevier BV
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description Motonormativity is a shared bias whereby people judge motorised mobility differently to other comparable topics. This works against societies addressing climate and public health crises effectively. A social-ecological explanation has been suggested for the phenomenon, in which motonormativity is shaped by people’s environments, but this has not been tested. Here we used a large international sample (N = 2035) and novel within-participants testing to show, for the first time, at least two environmental pathways linked to judgement biases: one related to people’s social surroundings and linked with their explicit views on transport, and a separate, more implicit pathway related to higher-level structural influences such as nationality, and living in rural areas. Additionally, respondents dramatically underestimated public support for non-motorised transport relative to their own, a pluralistic ignorance effect likely reflecting another facet of motonormativity. The social-ecological explanation, with its nested environmental influences, helps explain the ‘stickiness’ of automobility, and implies change will be most likely when multiple facets of a person’s social, physical and cultural surroundings align in supporting non-motorised mobility.
published_date 2025-05-01T08:19:00Z
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score 11.054899

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