Simulating the impact of cognitive biases on the mobility transition

TL;DR

This paper presents interactive simulators to help users understand cognitive biases affecting mobility choices, aiming to promote more rational decisions to reduce car use and its environmental impact.

Contribution

It introduces three online simulators that illustrate cognitive biases influencing mobility decisions, fostering awareness and potential behavioral change.

Findings

Simulators demonstrate the explanatory power of biases on mobility choices.

Online tools are available for public engagement and education.

Work is ongoing to evaluate their impact through user surveys.

Abstract

Climate change is becoming more visible, and human adaptation is required urgently to prevent greater damage. One particular domain of adaptation concerns daily mobility (work commute), with a significant portion of these trips being done in individual cars. Yet, their impact on pollution, noise, or accidents is well-known. This paper explores various cognitive biases that can explain such lack of adaptation. Our approach is to design simple interactive simulators that users can play with in order to understand biases. The idea is that awareness of such cognitive biases is often a first step towards more rational decision making, even though things are not that simple. This paper reports on three simulators, each focused on a particular factor of resistance. Various scenarios are simulated to demonstrate their explanatory power. These simulators are already available to play online, with the goal to provide users with food for thought about how mobility could evolve in the future. Work is still ongoing to design a user survey to evaluate their impact.