Pediatrician Flaura Koplin Winston is scientific director for the Center for Injury and Prevention at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and a public health researcher with expertise in adolescent health and safety. She says scare tactics may grab attention but do nothing to help build the skills needed to actually learn how to drive safely.
The best way to get people to adopt positive behaviors, she says, is to provide positive reinforcement. "Its much easier to teach somebody to do a behavior, make them feel they can master a behavior," than it is to tell people what not to do, she said.
"Just think about it with teens," says Winston. "We're always telling them, 'Don't do this' and 'Don't do that.' Scaring them about what would happen if they did do that bad thing is not a way to get them to do something good."
