Differences between taxi and nonprofessional male drivers in attitudes towards traffic-violation penalties

The present study examined attitudes towards traffic-violation penalties in (Israeli) male nonprofessional (NP) drivers and taxi drivers. The results indicated that the respondents generally judged the penalties as just and appropriate, that NP drivers judged the penalties as just more than taxi drivers, that the judgment of penalties as just increased as a function of penalty severity, and that NP drivers judged the penalties as just more than taxi drivers in low- and in medium-severity of penalty conditions but not in high-severity conditions. These findings are discussed in terms of the relation between attitudes and behavior and the importance of the legitimacy of laws by the public for achieving obedience as well as in terms of future research.