In our last Focus Soup video, we asked the question, “What causes you to get road rage?” In the survey that followed, 87% of the respondents said they had experienced road rage, and of those, 65% had been both the aggressor and the recipient. Triggers included slow drivers, distracted drivers and being cut off on the road.  In this day and age, it seems as though road rage is a typical part of our driving experience.

Yet when it happens, road rage comes out of nowhere. You might be running errands or driving home from work when suddenly a car swerves into your lane. In an instant, you slam on your breaks, your heart rate skyrockets, and your emotions are kicked into overdrive. In this moment, often our first thoughts are, “What a jerk! What is this idiot thinking? Learn how to drive!” Rarely do we have more tempered reactions like, “Oh maybe they are really in a hurry to get to their child’s dance recital” or “Another driver must have caused them to swerve into my lane.”

The reason we don’t immediately jump to those latter statements can be explained through social psychology, which is the study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others. Think back to the last time you had to take an exam in school. Did you do well or poorly? What factors did you attribute to your grade? Chances are if you did well, you attributed your score to internal, personal factors. You thought, “I studied really hard for this,” or “I am a smart person.” If you did poorly, you most likely attributed the results to external factors, e.g., “The questions were worded strangely,” or “That teacher just doesn’t like me.” When we perform below the standards we set for ourselves, we like to blame outside factors. When we do well at something, we like to attribute that to internal sources, such as our personality and character.

When asked what normally instigates your road rage, one of our respondents to the survey stated, “Plain old idiot drivers and people acting like a-holes like they own the road.” This is evidence that social attribution error is in full effect on the road. So the next time someone doesn’t use his blinkers or cuts you off, take a moment to assess the thoughts you have about that driver. That short moment just might help curb your road rage, leading to a safer driving experience for everyone.

Filed under: Focus Soup Results by admin Date 30 November, 2009