How Current Users of Public Transit Determine its Attractiveness to Others

Abstract

Previous research has indicated that individuals prefer to engage in behavior with similar others. From this it was hypothesized that the reported willingness to ride a city bus would be influenced by the perceived similarity between an individual and other riders. Two descriptions of bus riders were developed, one based on demographic information provided by 51 students waiting in line to purchase parking decals and the other based on their stereotypes of a typical rider. These descriptions were then presented to other similarly selected students as representations of a “typical rider.” Those who believed that typical riders would be similar to themselves (n = 34) indicated that they would be significantly more likely to ride a bus than those who believed that a typical rider would be dissimilar (n = 59).