This paper considers driving aggression as an interpersonal behaviour. It is assumed that a driver's reaction to another driver's frustrating behaviour depends on the interpretation of that behaviour. This study presented male drivers with scenarios describing frustrating driving situations caused by another driver, either male or female. The results showed that the male drivers made more hostile attributions toward men than toward women in a case of slow driving; however, in a scenario involving fast driving the subjects reacted more aggressively toward a woman than toward a man. The relationships between drivers' image, gender, attributions and reactions were examined with regression analysis. An interaction effect was found between image and gender with slow driving, but attributions were not related to reactions. The relationships are seen as likely to compose a self-fulfilling cyclic process of expectation and behaviour. The authors suggest that aggression might be reduced by psychological intervention. For the covering abstract see ITRD E113725 (C 22328 CD-ROM).
Abstract