Abstract
Less developed countries are overrepresented in traffic accidents, but knowledge on national differences in aberrant driving behaviours is scarce. This study investigated relationships between traffic violations measured with a 7-item Driver Behaviour Questionnaire and traffic accident involvement for an international crowdsourced sample. At the level of respondents (N = 6006), self-reported violations correlated moderately with self-reported accidents (Spearman ρ = .26). At the national level (N = 41), self-reported non-speeding violations (a composite consisting of three types of aggressive violations, tailgating, and using a mobile phone without a hands-free kit) correlated strongly with road traffic death rate per population (ρ = .77) and with developmental status (ρ = - .79), whereas self-reported speeding violations (a composite of speeding on a motorway and on a residential road) did not (ρ = - .08 and .22, respectively). Moreover, self-reported non-speeding violations correlated strongly with mean annual temperature (ρ = .58), while self-reported speeding violations did not (ρ = - .16). These cross-national correlates of traffic violations can be explained by developmental factors that lead to violation-provoking traffic situations or by the effect of temperature on aggression.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 145-152 |
Journal | Personality and Individual Differences |
Volume | 98 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2016 |
Bibliographical note
Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-careOtherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.
Keywords
- Aggression
- Driving behaviour
- Driving style
- Traffic psychology
- Violations