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Who are the aggressive drivers?
Watch out for cars with bumper stickers.
That's the surprising conclusion of a recent study by Colorado State University social psychologist William Szlemko. Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other "territorial markers" not only get mad when someone cuts in their lane or is slow to respond to a changed traffic light, but they are far more likely than those who do not personalize their cars to use their vehicles to express rage -- by honking, tailgating and other aggressive behavior.
It does not seem to matter whether the messages on the stickers are about peace and love -- "Visualize World Peace," "My Kid Is an Honor Student" -- or angry and in your face -- "Don't Mess With Texas," "My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student."
...Drivers who do not personalize their cars get angry, too, Szlemko and his colleagues concluded in a paper they recently published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology, but they don't act out their anger. They fume, mentally call the other driver a jerk, and move on.
"The more markers a car has, the more aggressively the person tends to drive when provoked," Szlemko said. "Just the presence of territory markers predicts the tendency to be an aggressive driver."
Here is much more, with some interesting theory in the article as well. Apparently bumper stickers indicate that the driver has a particular, and potentially dangerous, sense of territoriality.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on June 16, 2008 at 08:14 AM in Data Source | Permalink
Comments
Fwiw: don't mess with Texas is an ironic anti littering campaign.
Posted by: jim at Jun 16, 2008 9:24:21 AM
I wonder of the same thing holds for people who wear message t-shirts?
Posted by: Robin Hanson at Jun 16, 2008 9:41:26 AM
I'm surprised that the content of the bumper stickers didn't seem to matter. A lot of the bumper stickers I see seem ridiculously confrontative.
Maybe it's a signaling thing. You would never say such rude things in person, so plastering them all over your car indicates that you never leave your bubble, and perversely signals your reliability.
Posted by: Zach at Jun 16, 2008 9:48:14 AM
"Va. drivers vainest of them all with their plates"
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21742618/
Coincidence, I think not.
Posted by: Chris Myers at Jun 16, 2008 10:06:16 AM
I find that most cars that are covered with bumper-stickers are driven by wild-eyed liberals...
Posted by: Mike at Jun 16, 2008 10:12:01 AM
I find that most cars that are covered with bumper-stickers are driven by wild-eyed liberals...
Mostly just white people.
Posted by: Andrew at Jun 16, 2008 10:25:28 AM
COEXIST.
http://philoofalexandria.wordpress.com/2007/11/18/bummer-stickers/
Posted by: Lefty at Jun 16, 2008 11:08:36 AM
I don't know, these days most bumper stickers I see are of the "Support Our Troops" variety.
Posted by: meter at Jun 16, 2008 11:18:40 AM
Odd. The best advice I ever heard about getting angry when driving ("ask yourself whether this will be important in three weeks") was from an exercise physiologist whose van has some 20 bumper stickers (peace and love variety). Just another illustration of "anecdotes aren't data," I guess. I figure my own bumper sticker ("My son is serving in the US Army") is good for an additional 10 mph over the speed limit, so it's not a territorial thing.
Posted by: Alan Gunn at Jun 16, 2008 11:21:53 AM
I wonder if people with "status symbol cars" act in the same way.
I also wonder if the American culture of auto independence plays into this at all. Perhaps those that decorate their cars also find themselves "more free" in an automobile or some such. It'd be an interesting counter-theory to the "private property" argument.
Posted by: Robert Olson at Jun 16, 2008 11:25:34 AM
The presence of bumper stickers seems like a pretty good proxy or how much the driver cares about the resale value of the car. If you aren't so concerned with resale value you're probably more likely to take risks that could lead to an at-fault accident.
My experience has also been that people who leave their handicap parking permits on display at all times are less attentive and more timid than the average driver. This sort of thing is probably harder to test empirically, though.
Posted by: Sean at Jun 16, 2008 11:25:37 AM
The cars I see with a bunch of these bumper
stickers are usually left leaning. They have the
"Farms Not Arms", "Bush Lied, People Died", and so
on and so on. They usually drive some kind of sub-
compact, though they seem rather docile to me.
Their biggest sin is that on the highway, they are
usually driving 10 miles below the speed limit, so
maybe that is why they are always getting cut off or
have abuse hurled their way.
Posted by: DougEFresh at Jun 16, 2008 11:31:15 AM
Is there something wrong with aggressive driving?
There are safety issues, but those are probably mostly due to the incomparability of aggressive and non-aggressive driving. Generally aggressive driving should be both more fuel and time efficient and lead to less traffic.
The type of aggressive behavior and how aggressive should matter. A simple tap of the horn isn't the same as nudging someones bumper.
Posted by: aaron at Jun 16, 2008 11:33:09 AM
Sean, you've noticed that too.
Posted by: aaron at Jun 16, 2008 11:37:54 AM
Oh, for me, I have something that has the opposite effect: An advertisement for my friend's company. I don't want people associating hostile feelings with his company.
I think there are a few main reasons why aggressive gestures tend to be counter productive. One, the emotion promotes recklessness, and is also mentally distracting. Two, it has become quite apparent over recent years, that people are practically unable to both present or accept criticism constructively. Even when people are criticized constructively, they tend to be defensive and react in a counter productive way rather then evaluating the situation.
Posted by: aaron at Jun 16, 2008 12:05:24 PM
I have little bumper stickers for IHS and SomaFM. I wonder what that means.
Posted by: Franklin Harris at Jun 16, 2008 12:13:27 PM
Aaron,
My only problem with aggressive driving is that often, aggressive drivers want me to break the law- and they're not sharing the consequences. If I speed so the guy behind me who wants to go 20 miles over the speed limit instead of 10 will finally quit tailgating me, he's not going to be around to pay the speeding ticket that I get. If I roll through a stop sign because there's no traffic coming and the guy behind me is honking and giving me the finger because I took 0.05 seconds out of his life by coming to a complete stop, I doubt that's a valid legal defense for me in traffic court. Ditto with running over a pedestrian because driver behind me is so enraged that I stopped at a crosswalk with people in it that he nearly sideswipes me trying to go around (really happened). A lot of times, you end up trapped between aggressive, impatient drivers and fear of getting ticketed yourself.
Posted by: LisaMarie at Jun 16, 2008 12:21:14 PM
Lisa - if you're in the left lane, and the guy behind you wants to go faster, get the heck out of the way. (In California, at least, you're committing a traffic violation by not getting out of the way.)
Posted by: Anthony at Jun 16, 2008 1:12:09 PM
Interesting stuff! I just came off 13 hours in the car and I was wondering if people with bumper stickers are more likely to get rear-ended (because people are trying to read instead of watching the traffic).
Posted by: Bob Murphy at Jun 16, 2008 1:37:21 PM
of course my car is my territory - just ask my golden retriever.
though i own no bumper stickers.
Posted by: anon at Jun 16, 2008 1:51:22 PM
Anthony,
I'm well aware of that. I don't know why people assume that the left lane somehow magically appeases jerks who want to go 90 no matter how much traffic there is. Plenty of people are happy to tailgate no matter what lane you're in, whether or not there's any place you could possibly go to move out of their way. When I'm in the right lane and the others have a solid line of traffic, I can't blow by the highway patrol doing 80 and then claim it was because the dude behind me was pissed and wanted everyone to go faster.
Posted by: LisaMarie at Jun 16, 2008 2:18:31 PM
Yeah but what about my bumper sticker, which says "TERRITORIALITY" with a big red line through it?
Posted by: Paul N at Jun 16, 2008 2:43:24 PM
This would lead me to think that having a bumper sticker on your car should increase your insurance premium.
Posted by: Mike D at Jun 16, 2008 3:00:06 PM
Even though I don't have any bumper stickers, I am a fairly aggressive driver. People who tailgate me in lanes other than the left one will quickly find out how good their brakes are.
Posted by: Anthony at Jun 16, 2008 3:05:41 PM
I live in a very liberal state in a college town. I've never noticed the college kids with the stickers getting frustrated in traffic. It's primarily the local hicks in pick-ups. Lately, the locals have started to get annoyed by the most unusual thing; signaling for and taking slow turns! It's like, "Hey, I can't drive on this road forever moron. How much more notice of a turn do you want?"
Perhaps they are just wanting me to make more snappy turns. No can do.
Posted by: ideogenetic at Jun 16, 2008 3:44:48 PM
