Aggressive driving sometimes begins just by lifting a finger
When frustration permeates the air, anger seethes through an aggressive driver’s veins. Rage, the offspring of anger, becomes thick and tangible and dominates the situation.
Matt Flint, director and professor of health education at Eastern Washington University, has been studying angry drivers for a dissertation report. Flint is a former Utah State University professor, where he taught for three year, before moving to Washington.
According to an article Flint read entitled “We Drive Like we Live,” those who are highly stressed and aggressive in a normal daily routine will usually act the same way behind the wheel. The same goes for those who are mellow people and don’t show road rage, he said.
There are different steps in driving aggression, Flint said. Angry drivers honk and yell, aggressive drivers speed and are reckless; and drivers with road rage threaten and hurt people.
Just to flip someone off and yell at other drivers who don’t even hear what is being yelled at them is not a criminal act. Road rage is a criminal act because it is threatening, hurting or killing someone, Flint said.
USU seniors Brittany Dunn, majoring in liberal arts, and Suzanne Tansey, majoring in sociology, have been working on a study report on road rage and aggressive driving.
Dunn said for drivers, road rage is a form of the freedom of speech amendment.
“[Angry drivers say] I have a right to express my opinions, and because of that you’re a jerk,” she said.
According to the Web site www.roadrage.com, Arnold P. Nerenberg, a clinical psychologist in Whittier, Calif., has written many books to give advice for anger management.
According to the Web site,Nerenberg said the moment someone yells in anger or makes an obscene gesture, the chances someone will get hurt greatly increase.
More than 20,000 Americans die annually because of aggressive driving according to the Web site.
Flint said in the 1990s in Washington, D.C., 34 percent of drivers thought aggressive drivers posed a greater threat to their lives than drunk drivers.
According to the Department of Transportation research from 1990-1997, reports of aggressive driving rose 7 percent each year and were predicted to keep rising, Flint said.
Both Dunn and Tansey agree road rage is more of a cultural issue than a psychological issue. Some articles they found for their study were against fallacy, which was just an excuse to drive recklessly, Dunn said.
Dunn and Tansey said it is inconsistent as to who are most prone to experience road rage. It depends on the age group, the driver’s social class and personality.
Tansey said, “It depends on the day you’re having.”
According to Nuremberg’s Web site, “Hostility is magnified by the stresses of driving, and the personal stresses [and] issues the other driver brings with him [or] her into a vehicle.”
Flint said people ages 18 to 25 are most commonly found to be aggressive drivers. Men are found to be more aggressive drivers than women are because men spend more time driving than women. Women drivers are most often considered a cause for aggressive behavior in male drivers, he said.
“[It’s] a power thing,” Flint said.
Hormones have a great effect on the driver as well. Men have testosterone, which makes them more violent than women, he said.
“Can you treat anger? Do anger management treatments work?” Flint said.
Dunn said, “People need to lighten up.”
Flint said some things may help, such as counting to 10, listening to soft music on the radio, taking deep breaths and personalizing the situation, but aggression will always exist.
“Put yourself in their shoes,” Flint said.
By twisting the situation around and creating an entirely different picture, it can reduce the frustration, he said.
According to the Web site, “The aggressive driver is insulated by thousands of pounds of steel. He is secure, fully armored. His vehicle is his deadly weapon and his means of rapid escape.”
Tansey said in many cases the model of the vehicle itself could play a big role in road rage. For instance, drivers who have a faster vehicle will become more frustrated with an older, slower vehicle.
In 1958 there was an experiment done on angry drivers, Flint said. One driver stopped at a stoplight and did not proceed when the light changed from red to green. He then pulled out a stopwatch and timed how long it took for the driver behind him to honk their horn, he said.
Many years later another experiment was done to determine whether socioeconomic status affected angry drivers. Representing a higher-class status type of vehicle was a Lexus. As this car stopped at the stoplight and failed to continue at the green light, the stopwatch began timing. This car was not honked at as fast as the other car, which represented a lower-class status type of vehicle, Flint said.
The results of this experiment were partially based on the judgment of other drivers. The higher-class car driver was perceived as being intelligent due to higher education opportunities, and was just preoccupied at the stoplight. Other drivers, however, perceived the lower-class driver as stupid for not proceeding through the green light, Flint said.
A car with tinted windows versus a convertible can change how people react to other drivers, simply because they either see the other driver or they don’t, Flint said.
Usually the anonymity is lost when the driver recognizes the other driver as someone they know, such as an acquaintance or a neighbor, he said.