A study by the London School of Economics & Political Science and Goodyear Tyres has identified seven different motoring personalities on the roads of Britain today.
They emerge in different situations when drivers interact with others on the road.
- Competitors need to get ahead of all other drivers and get annoyed when someone gets in the way of that. They might accelerate when someone tries to overtake them or close a gap to prevent anyone from getting in front of them.
- Know-it-alls think they are surrounded by incompetent fools and content themselves with shouting condescendingly at other drivers while being protected in their own vehicle.
- Teachers need to make sure other drivers know what they have done wrong, and expect recognition of their efforts to teach others.
- Punishers want to punish other drivers for any perceived misbehaviour, and might end up getting out of their vehicle or approaching other drivers directly.
- Philosophers accept misbehaviour easily and try to rationally explain it. They manage to control their feelings when driving.
- Avoiders treat misbehaving drivers impersonally, and dismiss them as a hazard.
- Escapees listen to music or talk on the phone to insulate themselves. They also distract themselves with selected social relationships so they don’t have to relate to any of the other drivers on the road. It’s also a strategy for not getting frustrated in the first place.
The researchers held focus groups and in-depth interviews with drivers to discover how they deal with their own feelings and their uncertainty about the behaviour of other road users.
“Much of the time we can sit happily in the comfortable bubble of our vehicle, but around any corner we may have to interact with other drivers. This makes the road a challenging and uncertain social environment,” research leader Dr Chris Tennant, from the LSE’s Department of Social Psychology, said.
“From a psychological point of view, these different types of personalities represent different outlets that drivers use to deal with their frustrations and strong feelings. We are not always entirely one or the other. Depending on the situation and the interaction with others, most of us will find that several of these profiles emerge.”
