The purpose of this paper is to review two studies in which the over optimistic assessment by drivers of their own driving ability is explored. In the first study, a variety of psychological measures of personality, attribution style, mood, self-reporting driving problems and other everyday errors were collected via a battery of 8 questionnaires. This involved 423 people in Britain, with a 77% response rate. The second study involved 90 drivers selected from the first study. This study compared the assessments made of a driver's own driving on a 15 mile test route with assessments made by an accompanying driving instructor. This test was video-taped. The results indicated that a driver's performance, as assessed by a top grade driving instructor, could not be predicted from psychometric tests. Unless feedback is received en route from the instructor, the driver is similarly unsuccessful in assessing his own driving ability. Drivers' assessments of their own ability are relatively stable over time and are not influenced by feedback from an expert.
Abstract