Abstract
The behavioral and cognitive characteristics of dangerous drivers differ significantly from those of safe drivers. However, differences in emotional information processing have seldom been investigated. Previous studies have revealed that drivers with higher anger/anxiety trait scores are more likely to be involved in crashes and that individuals with higher anger traits exhibit stronger negativity biases when processing emotions compared with control groups. However, researchers have not explored the relationship between emotional information processing and driving behavior. In this study, we examined the emotional information processing differences between dangerous drivers and safe drivers. Thirty-eight non-professional drivers were divided into two groups according to the penalty points that they had accrued for traffic violations: 15 drivers with 6 or more points were included in the dangerous driver group, and 23 drivers with 3 or fewer points were included in the safe driver group. The emotional Stroop task was used to measure negativity biases, and both behavioral and electroencephalograph data were recorded. The behavioral results revealed stronger negativity biases in the dangerous drivers than in the safe drivers. The bias score was correlated with self-reported dangerous driving behavior. Drivers with strong negativity biases reported having been involved in mores crashes compared with the less-biased drivers. The event-related potentials (ERPs) revealed that the dangerous drivers exhibited reduced P3 components when responding to negative stimuli, suggesting decreased inhibitory control of information that is task-irrelevant but emotionally salient. The influence of negativity bias provides one possible explanation of the effects of individual differences on dangerous driving behavior and traffic crashes.
Highlights
In the driving literature, dangerous drivers share three driving behavior characteristic: intentional physical or psychological aggression, risk taking while driving and negative emotions during driving [1, 2]
One male driver assigned to the dangerous driver group was excluded from the final analysis because his Dula Dangerous Driving Index (DDDI) score was lower than the scores of all drivers in the safe driver group, suggesting that he may not have answered the questionnaire honestly
The mean reaction times of three participants exceeded three standard deviations above the average reaction time, and these participants were excluded from further analyses
Summary
Dangerous drivers share three driving behavior characteristic: intentional physical or psychological aggression, risk taking while driving and negative emotions (e.g., anger and anxiety) during driving [1, 2]. These behaviors are dangerous because they are significantly correlated with involvement in crashes and crash-related conditions, such as loss of concentration, near misses, loss of vehicle control and the imposition of fines or points [3,4,5,6]. Previous studies have found significant differences between dangerous drivers and safe drivers in terms of their personalities and traits [7, 8], cognitive abilities [9] and information
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