Thaindian News

Washington, Oct 18 (IANS) Those who view their car as an extension of themselves seem to develop more aggressive driving tendencies, says a new study.

The study, conducted by Ayalla Ruvio of the Temple University, is thought to be the first to comprehensively examine how personality, attitude and values contribute to aggressive driving behaviours.

Driving is one of the most common consumptive behaviours, and aggressive driving causes a third of all accidents that involve personal injuries and two-thirds of all fatal accidents in the US.

“It explains much of the phenomenon we knew existed,” said Ruvio, assistant professor of marketing at the Temple’s Fox School of Business, reports the Journal of Psychology & Marketing.

For instance, “we know men tend to be more aggressive drivers and we know men tend to see their cars as an extension of themselves more than women”.

Ruvio’s article takes a consumer behaviour perspective of this phenomenon and features two studies conducted in Israel, according to a Temple statement.

One took a holistic look at the influence of personality, attitudes and values gathered from 134 surveys of men and women, with an average age of 23.5.

The second study, of 298 people, built from the first and added the factors of risk attraction, impulsivity, driving as a hedonistic activity and perceptions about time pressures.

The studies found: People who perceive their car as a reflection of their self-identity are more likely to behave aggressively on the road and break the law.

People with compulsive tendencies are more likely to drive aggressively with disregard for potential consequences.

Those who admit to aggressive driving also admit to engaging in more incidents of breaking the law. A sense of being under time and pressure leads to more aggressive driving.