This article describes a recent study at the Department of Psychology, Reading University, to investigate what causes dangerous driving behaviour and how such behaviour can be modified. It has been found that most drivers overestimate their driving skill and their ability to drive safely, and underestimate their likelihood of being involved in an accident. Such "biases" seem to exist regardless of age, sex, situation and culture, with an apparently almost universal belief that "it won't happen to me"; the danger of such belief is that is does not promote self-protective behaviour. The aims of the Reading research were to: (1) examine these biases, and find out if there are situations where they do not operate; (2) determine the theoretical bases for the biases; (3) investigate whether "debiasing" techniques could be developed. The hope was that it might be possible to reduce or even eliminate these illusions. It was found that, for men, bias operated in all areas examined, though, for women, it was absent in only two of those areas. The findings about theoretical basis favoured the interpretation of an illusion of personal control over driving situations rather than one of unrealistic optimism. The first attempt to debias the drivers, by asking them to describe in detail imaginary accidents in which they were "involved", failed; however, limited debiasing occured when they were required to incur "serious injuries" in them.
Abstract