THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HAZARD PERCEPTION, RISK ASSESSMENT AND DIFFERENT DRIVING STYLES: LITHUANIAN SAMPLE

Abstract

"Scientists agree that not only personality traits and emotions, but also cognitive characteristics have a great influence on developing individual driving style. Usually, the analysis of driving style includes cognitive skills related to memory and attention, unreasonably not taking into account perceptual skills. Cognitive factors as hazard anticipation and risk assessment are crucially important for risky actions while driving and traffic accidents. However, there is a lack of studies on how road hazard perception skills and risk assessment could influence individual driving style, especially for professional and non-professional drivers. So, this study aims to evaluate the relation between different driving styles, road-related hazard perception and risk assessment among professional and non-professional drivers in Lithuania. One hundred twenty-three drivers (mean age 37.04 years) participated in online study. Eighty-nine participants were non-professional, 34 – professional drivers (the main job function is directly related to driving). The mean of driving experience was 16.2 years. Seventy-four percent of all participants drive on daily basis. Different driving styles were measured with Multidimensional Driving Style Inventory (Taubman-Ben-Ari et al., 2004). Forty-four self-reported items evaluated patient - careful, angry - hostile, anxious and reckless-careless driving styles. Hazard perception skills was tested by 12 short video clips in Lithuanian hazard prediction test (Endriulaitiene et al., in press). Risk assessment was measured by self-reported 34 – item scale (Rosenbloom et.al., 2008). Professional drivers reported more risky, specifically angry-hostile and reckless-careless, driving style than non-professional drivers. There was no difference in anxious and careful-patient driving styles. Also, professional and non-professional drivers reported having similar road-related hazard perception skills and quite similar risk assessment. Correlational analysis showed that low risk assessment significantly related to more angry/hostile driving style in non-professional driver group. High risk assessment significantly correlated to more reckless/careless driving style driving style, while better hazard perception skills significantly related to aggressive/hostile driving style in professional drivers’ group."