Breaking the Texting Habit: Why Young Drivers Take the Risk

There are many forms of distracted driving, but the most prevalent and deadly is texting while driving (TWD). According to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2024, over 3,000 fatalities were from accidents involving distracted driving, including texting. TWD involves composing, sending, or reading. text messages on a mobile phone while behind the wheel, and is exceptionally hazardous because it combines manual, visual, and cognitive distractions, all of which reduce decision-making abilities and awareness.

TWD is particularly common among young adult drivers, and many 18- to 25-year-olds admit to risking their safety and others through TWD. They do so because of two main influences: desire for online connectedness and low crash risk perception. In short, younger drivers want to stay connected online – whether due to boredom or FOMO – and believe that they are less likely to be involved in a car crash than what is statistically accurate.

Ultimately, drivers could eliminate 36% of U.S. crashes if they no longer texted while driving. Despite its risks and the number of accidents and fatalities, this behavior continues to be a relevant and pressing issue for road safety. Likewise, there has been little to no research exploring the behavioral and cognitive factors behind texting while driving. 

Therefore, in “Analyzing Protection Motivation Theory and Cognitive Failures in Texting While Driving Behavior Among Young Drivers,” Janeth Gabaldon (University of Arkansas), Suman Niranjan (University of North Texas), Timothy G. Hawkins (University of North Texas), Maranda E. McBride (North Carolina A&T State University), and Katrina Savitskie uncover what influences young adults to TWD. Their research can shape intervention and regulation efforts for discouraging this practice and improving road safety. 

Why People (Still) Text and Drive

Texting while driving is the most common type of distracted driving amongst young adult drivers, and you may want to chalk this up to young drivers being rebellious and not listening to older, more experienced drivers, an inability to stay off their cellphones, or a lack self-awareness. But you’d be missing the whole story if you did that. Instead, there is much more to this dangerous behavior than meets the eye, making it a complex challenge to curb. TWD also poses serious risks to drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and other road users, increasing the likelihood of accidents and injuries.

Gabaldon and her coauthors use protection motivation theory to explain how people adopt protective behaviors in response to potential threats, impacting action awareness, control, attention, and intention. So, when drivers want or need to protect themselves, they adopt threat and coping appraisal behaviors.

Threat appraisals are when a driver assesses severity – how crashing could impact their health, for example – and vulnerability, the likeliness of their actions causing them harm. If texting drivers perceive both as high and probable, they will likely change or alter their actions. This alteration could be as simple as changing lanes, reducing their speed, or increasing their focus.

Coping appraisal is when a driver evaluates their effectiveness at responding, acting, and accepting the costs to reduce threat. For example, a driver decides that slowing down while texting is the best option to prevent crashing or getting pulled over. Then, they mentally decide whether they can successfully carry out this response. However, the costs involved with these responses, namely becoming discouraged by the inconvenience, expense, unpleasantness, or difficulty involved, may short circuit my willingness to change course. These behaviors lead drivers to decide whether they should stop, begin, or continue texting and driving. But what about their ability to remain alert and process information while texting and driving?

Humans tend to make mistakes in thinking and behavior in complex real-world situations, so much so that easy-to-do tasks can become difficult. This phenomenon is known as cognitive failure. Drivers who text experience it more often than other distracted drivers. For example, when texting, drivers may swerve, vary in speed, or forget to use turning signals due to divided attention. Drivers will thus often be unable to overcome surprises, like the driver ahead slamming on their brakes. 

Gabaldon says young drivers may attempt to adopt safe responses and/or justify their behavior while still texting. These behaviors range from quickly glancing at their phone and using voice commands to increasing distance from other cars. However, cognitive failure can still occur, as these actions ultimately affect concentration and create lapses in attention.

Government and civic campaigns have increased efforts and usage of billboards, radio ads, and digital advertisements to raise awareness of texting while driving’s potential dangers and legal and social consequences. Distracted driving has become so deadly on the road, that the NHTSA established April as the National Distracted Driving Awareness Month to remind drivers of the legal consequences and deadly dangers of texting behind the wheel. The challenge, though, is this: younger drivers who text while driving may just feel immune to these consequences and disregard these billboards and ads altogether.

Engage or Disengage

So, the question remains: why do drivers – particularly young adults – keep texting while driving?

Firstly, when drivers feel more vulnerable to severe threats and feel capable of successfully changing their actions, they are less likely to text and drive. Secondly, if they feel that changing their actions burdens them, and that they have a high chance of making a mistake, drivers will likely adopt or continue texting while driving. Thirdly, when a driver cognitively fails more, experiencing more lapses in memory, their perception of vulnerability may not be high enough to prevent texting while driving. Lastly, when drivers experience mental lapses or poor judgment (cognitive failure), they tend to ignore the downsides of their behavior while at the same time being more responsive to concrete consequences like fines.

That said, drivers’ belief in their ability to respond effectively to risks and threats does not affect their decision to text while driving. Additionally, poor judgment and mental lapses do not alter how drivers react to serious threats while driving. Similarly, these mental lapses do not affect how drivers’ confidence in handling risks relates to their actual ability to avoid texting while driving.

Putting Down the Phone

Cell phones enable dangerous behavior while driving, and technological advancements like in-vehicle apps and screens only contribute to the issue. Although understanding the severe consequences can encourage young drivers to stop engaging in texting while driving, many may still hide this behavior to avoid being caught due to overconfidence, societal norms, and underestimating the risks.

Because of this, federal public campaigns can – and currently do – emphasize the genuine severity and likelihood of outcomes. The most recent and targeted interventions, such as NHTSA's “Put the Phone Away or Pay” campaign reminds drivers of the dangers and legal consequences for those who text. It prompts drivers to act: to pledge themselves to save lives by never using phones while driving and to speak up when others are distracted.

Like the National Safety Council's online distracted driving course, educational programs can aid in decreasing accidents caused by texting while driving. They do so by emphasizing the benefits of refraining from texting, providing efficient alternatives, and promoting behavioral change.

Understanding the cognitive processes and what motivates individuals to adapt their behaviors allows for the improvement of driving performance and road safety. By not texting while driving, drivers will not only keep themselves safer but also those driving, walking, and riding near them, helping prevent over 3,000 fatalities and 360,000 injuries a year.  While this research aims to identify factors that influence and deter young drivers’ TWD behaviors, further students are needed to gain a comprehensive understanding.