How You Deal with Your Emotions Is How You Drive. Emotion Regulation Strategies, Traffic Offenses, and the Mediating Role of Driving Styles

Andrei C Holman,Simona A Popușoi

doi:10.3390/su12124929

Abstract

Past research indicated the importance of traffic safety and driving behaviors for the sustainability of the traffic system. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of emotion regulation on drivers’ tendency to obey or transgress traffic rules. A sample of 554 Romanian drivers completed a set of measures assessing their driving styles, traffic offenses, and their habitual use of three emotion regulation strategies. The results of the mediation analyses showed that two of these strategies, i.e., reappraisal and experiential avoidance, are associated with less traffic offenses, and that specific driving styles mediate these effects. While the behavioral effects of experiential avoidance were mixed in valence, reappraisal was found to diminish the use of maladaptive driving styles and to foster careful driving. Overall, this pattern of results indicates the potential benefits of future interventions aiming to develop drivers’ abilities to regulate their emotions, especially through reappraisal, for increasing traffic safety.

Highlights

Road traffic accidents (RTA) represent a major factor of human causalities, as 20 to 50 million suffer non-fatal injuries and more than 1.35 million people die each year [1]
Traffic offenses significantly correlated with reappraisal and experiential avoidance
The habitual use of reappraisal significantly correlated with the rule violation, anxious, risky, and distress reduction driving styles, whereas experiential avoidance emerged as associated with the angry, risky, anxious, dissociative, and careful driving styles

Summary

Introduction

Road traffic accidents (RTA) represent a major factor of human causalities, as 20 to 50 million suffer non-fatal injuries and more than 1.35 million people die each year [1]. An individual’s driving style is considered to be one of the most important factors commonly related to speeding choice and compliance to traffic laws [7]. Another facet of driving style relevant for sustainability pertains to the conclusion of previous studies that changing to a more adaptive driving style may lead to reducing gas consumption by up to 40% [8]

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Conclusion