Female vs. Male Ampelmännchen-Gender-Specific Reaction Times to Male and Female Traffic Light Figures

Traffic signs are important visual guiding signals for the safe navigation through complex road traffic. Interestingly, there is little variation in the traffic signs for cars around the world. However, remarkable variation exists for pedestrian traffic signs. Following up from an earlier study, we investigated the visual efficacy of female vs. male German Ampelmännchen pedestrian traffic signs. In a Stroop-like test, 30 subjects were presented with female and male go and no-go traffic light figures that were shown either in the corresponding or opposing color. Subjects had to indicate, based either solely on the form or the color of the figure, whether they were allowed to go. Accuracy and response times across all subjects did not differ for the female vs. male signs, indicating that Ampelfrau and Ampelmann signs have equal visual efficacy. However, subjects responded faster to signs of their own vs. the opposite gender. This preference for signs of one's own gender is in accordance with effects in social psychology described by social learning theory. An introduction of such novel traffic lights may, thus, contribute to higher compliance with the traffic sign signals.