"Respect on the Road": Mott MacDonald Literature Review

How do people justify their behaviour on the road

This section looks at some of the explanations in the literature about how people justify their behaviour on the road.

Social learning theory (Bandura, 1986) suggests that we learn most of our behaviours through observing others. This may suggest that every individual is raised to be an aggressive driver and pedestrian through observing parental behaviour through spending many hours observing our parents driving from the backseat. By the time we start learning to drive we may subconsciously drive aggressively and experience competitive feelings behind the wheel. Such research is supported by "Dr Driving" (Dr Leon James, a psychologist from the University of Hawaii^[36]), who suggests that road rage is a habit acquired at childhood. When in a car children notice that the normal rules have changed in terms of aggression, bad language and other emotions. Additionally, people may learn their behaviours from what they see on the road once they are driving (Tasca, undated).

Bandura is quoted in many famous psychology texts and early studies suggest that social learning theory is a useful, systematic tool to identify barriers to, and facilitators of, change and may be helpful in selecting appropriate forms of intervention. It is quite an old text but still relevant in today's society. Albert Bandura has great authority within his field. Its scope is limited to behavioural psychology and social psychology but these subjects do form the basis of our understanding of behaviour in the world around us.

The social learning theory would also suggest that the media might transmit aggressive behaviour to drivers. Tasca (undated) notes that commercials emphasise some aggressive driving behaviours, whilst television programmes regularly feature car chases with dangerous driving.

An article on the BBC website^[37], which was originally part of the BBC Word Service Masterpiece programme, suggests that drivers consistently over-estimate their own driving skills, and believe that other road users are less adequate. Behaviour is frequently justified because drivers feel that their own driving skill is greater than other drivers. The RAC^[38], for example, report that motorists consider driving with a hand-held mobile to be dangerous, but only if committed by other drivers. The RAC suggests this is symptomatic of today's 'me' society:

"...worrying numbers of motorists admit to a range of poor and dangerous habits ranging from jumping red lights, undertaking and blocking junctions to road rage, using a hand-held mobile and cutting people up. Few consider this behaviour to be serious or dangerous, particularly as they rarely get caught. Yet again, it would take a radical increase in detection and more stringent penalties for this sort of behaviour to change."

Parker and Stradling (2001) argue that violators differ to other drivers because of their beliefs, which they summarise as follows:

• They won't be involved in an accident
• They won't get stopped by the police
• They won't put anyone at risk
• The potential adverse consequences of their actions are less bad
• Their friends / partner / immediate family / other drivers on the road will not disapprove
• Modern cars 'want' to go faster
• Other drivers pressure them to speed
• It's difficult to resist the temptation
• It's difficult to keep to the speed limit

The authors also compare the attitudes of violators with non-violators. Compared to other drivers, when committing a violation, high violators:

• Do find it enjoyable
• Do get a feeling of exhilaration
• Do feel it gives them a chance to show off their driving skills
• Don't feel anxious or stressed
• Don't feel afraid of getting caught
• Don't feel that their behaviour is selfish

Compared to other drivers, non-violators:

• Feel that they are the sort of person who does not violate
• Feel that violating is just not 'them'
• Believe that it is wrong to commit violations, whatever others think
• Would feel back if they did commit a violation

Compared to other drivers, violators:

• Consider themselves (even) better drivers than do others
• Just 'find themselves' committing a violation
• Think that other drivers will be less upset by the bad behaviour
• Over-estimate the number of other drivers who speed, drive too close etc.
• Get more irritated by the behaviour of others

We have seen in the previous section those elements of driving which seem to make people behave in a unique way (freedom, territory, the car itself as a status symbol, anonymity, and external driving factors), as well as those which may not be unique to driving (such as driver personality and whether actions whilst driving are a reflection of society in general). Many of these issues are of relevance here. Certainly the issue of territory is of importance. The BBC article cited above also mentions that "...cars lend a driver a feeling of being in a private, near-indestructible space [which] makes road rage an ever-increasing phenomenon as more cars roll on to the road." The issue of private or personal space is taken further by Connell and Joint (1996), who suggest that the car straddles the boundary between personally owned space and the public domain. As such, within a car behaviour is often only limited to the standards of the individual. It is generally more socially acceptable to display more aggression in one's own home, and the car can be seen as an extension of the home and therefore bound in the rules of it. A car can be seen as an extension of the driver^[39].

The issue of territory is related to the issue of anonymity. The anonymity of the road^[40] may be one reason why there is more perceived anger when driving. This is because when driving you are rarely confronted by another person, but rather a car. It is easier to be aggressive or disrespectful towards an object (the car) rather than a person.

Having to share the road might also be important^[41]. The extent to which people feel they have to share the road with those who might drive aggressively - and the extent to which those who feel they drive acceptably have to share the road with people who drive too slowly and cautiously - could be of importance. Some people may react to having to share the road with someone who is driving aggressively by driving aggressively themselves. Others may make driving mistakes because other people are driving aggressively.

The fact that the car is such an integral part of daily life might also be a reason for people justifying their behaviour. A report by the RAC^[42] found that nine in ten drivers would find it difficult to adjust their lifestyles if they did not have a car and use their car every day. On average a British driver now drives 11,000 miles a year and almost half are part of a two-car household. The RAC suggests that the car has a pivotal role in British life and there is a feeling of 'right to drive'. Such concepts might explain why some drivers feel they also have the right to drive as they wish.

The 'frustration-aggression hypothesis' (Dollard et al 1939) might be a useful way of explaining driving aggression. The theory indicates that frustration (defined as blocking an ongoing or goal-directed behaviour) always leads to aggression, and aggression always stems from aggression. In terms of driving, this theory might help to explain aggression when it is the result of impeded progress.

Dollard et al (1939) is a classic text and well respected, though its applicability to driver aggression has been contested (e.g. Lajunen and Parker 2001). As such, though it might be useful in a wider context, in driver-specific contexts its usefulness could be limited. Despite this it still provides a useful one possible theory explaining aggression.

Results from the study by Lajunen and Parker (2001) suggest that, on the whole, the frustration-aggression hypothesis does not apply to driving, as drivers tend to adapt well to conditions on the roads. Particularly, they suggest, traffic obstructions such as traffic jams or road construction does not seem to provoke anger amongst British drivers. However this may be to do with the extent to which these impediments are common on the British roads.

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36: www.drdriving.org.
37: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3583863.stm.
38: www.rac.co.uk.
39: www.drivers.com/allarticles/31/.
40: www.drivers.com/allarticles/31/.
41: www.drivers.com/article/166/.
42: www.rac.co.uk.

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