Webinar Session presented by Jinhua Zhao (MIT), on September 20th, 2016. BRT Centre of Excellence (www.brt.cl)

1. Jinhua Zhao
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Emotional Travel
Role of Social Psychology in Shaping Mobility Decisions
BRT COE Webinar

2. How to change behavior?
2

3. 3
Laziness knows no boundaries…

4. Subconscious mind
Conscious mind

5. homo econ vs. homo sapiens
• Behavioral deviation
– loss aversion
– overweighing small probability
– mental accounting
– hyberbolic discounting
– framing effects
– altruism
– price saliency
5

6. Behavioral
Science
Transportation
Engineering~

7. Is Travel Social?
Is Travel Emotional?
Is Travel Time Absolute?
7

8. Is Travel Social?
Is Travel Emotional?
Is Travel Time Absolute?
8
On-demand service
Shared mobility
Autonomous vehicles
What does this mean?

9. Is travel social?
9

10. 10
Why ants don’t run into traffic jam,
while people do?

11. 1. Why ants don’t get into traffic jam?
2. Doing good or doing well
3. Do we make our own decision?
4. Mingle while traveling
11
Psychology of Cooperation
Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations
Social Norm and Peer Pressure
Transportation as Social Space
How is travel social?

12. Shared Mobility
12

13. 13

14. Physics

15. 15
Santi, Paolo, et al 2013, Taxi pooling in New York City: a network-based
approach to social sharing problems
Santi, Paolo, et al 2014 Quantifying the benefits of vehicle pooling with
share-ability networks.

16. Psychology

17. Two persons vs. two boxes

18. 18
modes of social interaction

19. Meeting Room Bathroom
Intensity Spontaneity

20. 20
Norman Foster + Steve Jobs, Apple Headquarter, 13,000 people

21. “serendipitous encounters”

22. Meeting Room Bathroom
Intensity Spontaneity

23. 23
Impromptuness + Intensity
Ride sharing

24. 24

25. 25

26. 26
Impromptuness
+
Intensity
+
Intimacy
Ride sharing

27. 27
a new mode of social interaction

28. 28
Network Efficiency
+
Preference for Social Interaction
Q1: Matching Algorithm

29. 29
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Number of shareable trips
10
0
10
1
102
103
Rankofpairedpassengerinpreferencelist
0
200
400
600
800
1,000
1,200
1,400
Frequency
Max. card. 5-95%tile
Pref.-based 5-95%tile
Max. weight 5-95%tile Degree dist.
Hongmou Zhang and Jinhua Zhao (2016) Ridesharing with Preferences The Tradeoff Between
Efficiency and Travel Experience

30. 30
50 100 150 200 250 300
∆t
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
Frequency ×104
Maximum Cardinality Matching
Maximum Weight Matching (approx.)
Stable-preference Matching

31. 31

32. 100 extra seconds for a better
conversation?
32

33. 33
Q2. Social Prejudice
&
Racial Biases
Consumer Discrimination

34. Q3: Autonomous Vehicles
34
No-supervision of the driver

35. Is Travel Social?
Social Mobility Sharing: Faceless Efficiency
or Emerging Mode of Human Interaction

36. Is Travel Emotional?

37. 37
Beijing 2010

38. 38
Source: Wang Wenlan, Wen’s Lens, http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/wangwenlan/2009-12/07/
content_9128656.htm
Beijing 1982

39. 3
0%
18%
35%
53%
70%
1986 2000 2005 2009 2010
16%
20%
30%
39%
63%
Bicycle Mode Share in Beijing

40. Kingdom of Bicycles

41. Underlining Factors
• built environment
• income growth
• policy and regulation
• bicycle industry
• social and attitudinal
Bicycle Decline

42. “I would rather cry in a BMW than
smile on your bike.” – Ma Nuo
Bicycle as Failure of Life
Bike is perceived as for
• the migrants
• the delivery men
• the students
• the poor
• …

43. Bicycle as a Symbol of Modernity
• Urban Elite
• Luxury
• Open
• Modern

44. Bicycle as a Symbol of Women Liberation
• Freedom
• Active
• Fashionabl
e

45. Mentality shift: what defines a successful life?
Modernity Failure Active lifestyle

46. Historical Cycle of Attitudes Toward Bicycles
Early Adoption Steady Growth Rapid Growth Rapid Decline
1910-1949 1949-1978 1978-1990s 1990s-Now
Upper class
fancies
Upper middle
class goal
Average family
necessities
Failure of life
Revival
?
Active lifestyle
Pro-environ
Cool person
Cars in China
15 years ago
Cars in
North America
Cars in China
now

47. "A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus
can count himself a failure." – Lady Margaret Thatcher
1986

48. “No other man-made device since the shields and lances
of ancient knights fulfills a man’s ego like an automobile.”
—Lord Rootes
48

49. Car Pride:
Psychological Structure and
Behavioral Implications
Zhan Zhao and Jinhua Zhao (2016) Car Pride: Psychological Structure and Behavioral
Implications

50. I would own a car, even if I don't
need it to travel.
50
Yes,%51%%
No,%49%%

51. I feel proud of owning a car
51
0%#
10%#
20%#
30%#
40%#
50%#
Strongly#agree# Partially#agree# Neutral# Partially#disagree# Strongly#disagree#

52. 52
No
No
Identity-Goal Congruence
Having a Car (idea)
Symbolization
Identity-Goal Relevance
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
Negative Self-
Representation
Positive Self-
Representation
Process of Self-Representation
No Self-
Representation
(Car Neutral) (Car Shame) (Car Pride)

53. 53

54. Is travel a mundane daily chore or
does it have a higher meaning attached to it?
54
Food, clothing, sheltering, traveling:
all have an element of utility and an element of vanity

55. Car Pride and AV
• Car pride exalts private ownership
• Hold back shared mode of AV deployment
55

56. Broader Impact on Policy
• Higher pride reduces price elasticity
–Undermining congestion charging
• Car restriction policy —> more exclusive
–Perverse behavioral response
56

57. Is Travel Time Absolute?

58. In Newtonian physics
Time is linear, one-directional, and absolute.
58

59. In transportation
Travel time is wasted, of negative utility, and to be reduced.
59

60. 60The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dalí, 1931

61. 1.Artist’s view
2.Einstein’s view
3.Psychologist’s view
4.Transportation view
61
Re-interpreting Travel Time
Dali
Time Dilation
Cognitive Time
+/- Utility of Travel

62. Theory of Behavior Choice
62
Perceptions
Preferences
Process Choices
Memory
Information
Reality
Time and
Money
Constraints
Experiences
History (space and time)
Behavior
Affect
Sources: McFadden, Simon, Khaneman, Thaler, Tversky, Ariely,…

63. Perception of travel time
and
Information manipulation
63

64. 1. How does that information affect travel
decisions?
2. Could we use a metro map as a planning
tool?
London Case
Washington DC Case
Zhan Guo, Jinhua Zhao, Chris Whong, Prachee Mishra, Lance
Wyman (2016) Redesigning Subway Map to Mitigate Bottleneck
Congestion TR-A, under review
Guo, Z. (2011). Mind the map! The impact of transit maps on path
choice in public transit. Transportation Research Part A: Policy and
Practice, 45(7), 625-639.

65. Re-design Subway Maps to Reduce
Crowding in the D.C. Metro
Zhan Guo, Jinhua Zhao, Chris Whong, Prachee Mishra, Lance Wyman
(2016) Redesigning Subway Map to Mitigate Bottleneck Congestion TR-A, under review

66. Washington DC Metro Map Redesign

67. Map A (Current Map) vs. Map B
5.65 %

68. Map A vs. Map C
1.88 %

69. Map A vs. Map E
9.45 %

70. 53
B 3.6 C 3.6
D 3.6 E 4.2
F 3.41
G 2.68
Map A: Blue Line length = 0.5531, Ratio of Route Lengths = 3.0
0.6637 0.6637
0.6637 0.7738
0.5531
0.5406

71. Preliminary Results

72. Lance Wyman: Metro Map Designer
Enlarged the ratio
between Blue and
Yellow Line by 4
percentage point

73. • Information affects behavior
• We can manipulate information to influence
behavior

74. Methods
74

75. Subconscious mind
Conscious mind

76. 76
Implicit Association
Car
or
Positive Social
Status
Bus
or
Negative Social
Status

77. I feel proud of owning a car
77
0%#
10%#
20%#
30%#
40%#
50%#
Strongly#agree# Partially#agree# Neutral# Partially#disagree# Strongly#disagree#

78. LatentVariables: Psychometric Measurement
Indicator Statements
Personal Pride
Proud* I feel proud of owning a car
Self_esteem* Driving meets my self-esteem to some extent.
Achievement* I have a sense of accomplishment after buying a car
Social Pride
Image_fit* Using travel modes other than driving does not suit my personal image
Status* Car is a status symbol
Social_image* Having a car is connected with one’s social image

79. 79

80. EEG
Neuro-headset
80

81. Implicit Association Test (IAT):
Congruent
shorter
response time
Car
or
Positive Social Status
Bus
or
Negative Social Status

82. Implicit Association Test (IAT):
Incongruent
longer
response time
Car
or
Negative Social Status
Bus
or
Positive Social Status

83. IAT D-Score
Lincongruent − Lcongruent
stotal

84. Two-Part Design
IAT + Survey
Travel Attributes
Sociodemographic
Characteristics
Social Status Bias
Measures
Likert
{CarPos, CarNeg,
BusPos, BusNeg}

85. 1. Is there a difference in the explicit and implicit
measures for social status bias for mode choice?
Implicit and explicit measures for social
status bias are largely independent
2. Which measure influences actual behavior
Mode choice model:
implicit (IAT) > explicit (Likert)

86. 86
Social psychological factors
• Environmental consciousness
• Social equity
• Racial bias
• Gender
• Car pride
• Car dependence

87. 87
Implicit Association
Car
or
Positive Social
Status
Bus
or
Negative Social
Status

88. Closing remarks
88

89. Is Travel Social?
Is Travel Emotional?
Is Travel Time Absolute?
89

90. Is Travel Social?
Is Travel Emotional?
Is Travel Time Absolute?
90
On-demand service
Shared mobility
Autonomous vehicles
What does this mean?

91. Emotional Travel
• “sensing” behavior
• “understanding” behavior
• “nudging” behavior
• “regulating” behavior
91

93. Jinhua Zhao
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Emotional Travel
Role of Social Psychology in Shaping Mobility Decisions
MITEI Mobility of the Future Workshop