The correlation between car and driver

Imagine a leisurely drive on a Sunday morning. As you make your way down the scenic country road, a car comes speeding behind you. The driver remains as close to you as possible. But you’re not surprised seeing as the driver is at the wheel of an electric blue Honda Civic. Is that prejudicial?

“Not really,” answers Amélie Auger. The undergrad psychology student studied, along with her classmate Marie-Hélène Lemyre, the influence one’s perception of their vehicle has on their aggressiveness at the wheel following a stressful situation on the road. They discovered that people who perceive their cars as big or performing take on riskier behavior at the wheel. They get angry faster and feel personally targeted by the behavior of other drivers.

“We wanted to demonstrate that what we believe to be a stereotype, for instance, that Mustang drivers are more aggressive, is sometimes founded,” explains Auger. The results are a part of a broader study conducted within the framework of a course given by Professor Jacques Bergeron. Students had to choose a theme linked to dissatisfaction at the wheel. Bergeron finds the results obtained by Auger and Lemyre to be “very interesting” despite being preliminary and partial.

The students surveyed 380 men and women between 18 and 78-years-old with the help of two questionnaires. The first questionnaire measured the reaction of people facing stressful situations at the wheel. The second questionnaire addressed perception of the vehicle. Is it perceived as high-performance or luxurious? Is the driver embarrassed by his or her vehicle? What importance is attributed to the vehicle?

These results bring up many more questions according to Bergeron who is faced with the paradox of the chicken or the egg. “Is it our personality that dictates our car choice or vice versa?” he asks. Auger intends to answer these types of questions within the framework of her master’s degree.


University of Montreal News Digest
17 September 2007