This study examined possible psychological processes involved in risky and aggressive driving (RAD). Extensive research had focused on anger as a primary antecedent to RAD, but this research was problematic because: there was too much focus on "trait" driving anger, the measures used had questionable validity, and it was often simply descriptive in nature. The present study contributed to this literature by creating two new scales and examining the role of self-construals as an alternative antecedent of anger-induced RAD. Specifically, self-construal for courteous driving was hypothesized to interact with the driving context such that other drivers' norm violations would cause elevated state anger due to more stringent standards of proper driving behavior. Elevated state anger, in turn, was expected to lead to more RAD as a means of expressing the negative evaluation of the norm violation.
Subjects read various driving scenarios depicting either a provocative norm violation from another driver (e.g., following too closely) or a provocative situation lacking a norm violation (e.g., road construction) and reported their expected level of state anger and behavioral reaction (i.e., RAD). Contrary to expectations, hierarchical multiple regression analyses revealed that self-construal for courteous driving was not predictive of state anger and was negatively related to RAD for both types of scenarios. Still, self-construal for courteous driving did show potential as a selection device for jobs that require driving.
Gender differences were found such that women reported more anger in reaction to the scenarios than men did, but women were not higher than men on RAD. Also, no meaningful differences were found between an urban and a rural sample, which supports previous conclusions that population density and exposure do not affect driving anger or behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed along with suggestions for future research.