Emotions are relevant for driving behaviour, because driving is a complex and risky task, and the state of the driver is crucial for the safe performance of this task. Systematic research on the process of emotion elicitation and the consequences of emotions for driving related performance and road safety is, however, scarce. This thesis aims to clarify the role of emotions in traffic. Two questions are central: which are the aspects in the interaction between person and task environment that elicit emotion, and which are the consequences of emotions for driving related performance and road safety. The thesis showed that emotions occur rather frequently in traffic. Although they are often relatively mild, they can be differentiated in terms of determinants and consequences, but also in terms of physiological responses. Both questionnaire and on road studies showed the relevance of appraisal for the elicitation of emotion: emotions are elicited by the evaluation of specific aspects of traffic events and it depends on the person’s individual characteristics whether and to what extent emotions are experienced. Emotions, especially anger, are related to cognitive bias, although in the present studies, causal inferences could not be made. Finally, emotions were shown to be related to evaluations of risk and to behaviour tendencies and actual driving behaviour.
Abstract