Perceived obligation, overconfidence and electric‐bike driving hazards: The double‐edged sword of social network density

Abstract This paper introduces the social network perspective to the context of electric‐bike driving and empirically tests various hypotheses on the relationship between social network density and electric‐bike driving hazards. The results of a three‐wave time‐lagged field study of 1575 electric‐bike drivers showed that social network density had a negative indirect effect on driving hazards, mediated by perceived obligation, and a positive indirect effect on driving hazards, mediated by overconfidence. Furthermore, a strong perceived ethical climate strengthened the negative indirect effect of social network density on driving hazards via perceived obligation and mitigated the positive indirect effect of social network density on driving hazards via overconfidence. This study makes theoretical contributions and provides empirical evidence to support the further exploration of electric‐bike driving safety hazards. It also contributes to the literature on social network density by revealing how it is akin to a double‐edged sword in the context of safety incidents.