Can you talk and drive safely at the same time? : an examination of gender differences in driving performance of young drivers observed whilst conversing with a passenger or on a mobile phone.

Through the use of confederates, we examined the driving performance of young male and female drivers on a driving simulator as they conversed either with a passenger or with an unexpected caller on the driver's own mobile phone. In another two conditions the driver merely listened to the conversation between two passengers, or else they carried a silent passenger. Males and females show a quite different pattern of responses to these sources of distraction. As might be expected, the number of driving errors committed by the female drivers increased whilst they were engaged in conversation on their mobile phone, but talking to a passenger produced no more errors than did driving in either of the two non-conversing conditions. In contrast, the male drivers not only made fewer errors whilst talking on the mobile phone than they did whilst conversing with a passenger, they also made fewer errors whilst conversing on the mobile phone than they did in either of the two conditions in which they were not required to talk. Results highlight a need to obtain a better understanding of the apparent gender specificity of some sources of distraction for young drivers with a view to better targeting safety messages to this at-risk group of drivers. (Author/publisher) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E215375.