The effect of cognitive errors, mindfulness and personality traits on pedestrian behavior in a Chinese sample

• The Chinese PBS has a highly reliable and stable structure.
• Pedestrian behaviors were strongly correlated with attention related errors in everyday life and conscious awareness.
• Pedestrian personality traits as a stable characteristic were also shown to be an effective predictor of pedestrian behavior.
• Men reported fewer positive behaviors and more aggressive behaviors than women.

The high rate of traffic accidents involving pedestrians has become a major traffic safety problem worldwide, especially in developing countries. In the current study, we employ a Chinese version of the Pedestrian Behavior Scale (PBS) and explore its correlation with attention and personality traits. A sample of 283 adults completed the Chinese Pedestrian Behavior Scale (CPBS), which measures pedestrian behavior, and a demographic questionnaire. And 183 of them completed (1) the Attention-Related Cognitive Errors Scale (ARCES) and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS), which measure pedestrian attention-related issues; (2) a scale to capture personality traits (including normlessness, anger, sensation-seeking and altruism). Overall, the Chinese PBS showed adequate reliability and a stable structure. Hierarchical multiple regressions were employed to examine the effects of personality traits, attention-related errors (measured by the ARCES), and conscious awareness (measured by MAAS), and the results show that MAAS, ARCES, normlessness, anger and altruism can affect pedestrian behaviors. These findings could guide the development of intervention programs through the evaluation of various pedestrian behaviors, thus reducing the frequency of pedestrian-involved traffic accidents.