Many reckless drivers, particularly young men, cannot be scared straight. In fact, new research shows, scare tactics actually encourage some drivers to speed, swerve, and otherwise show what they can do behind the wheel. For some young men, the self-image boost they get from freewheeling down the road outweighs the risk of injury and death, according to Israeli researchers. In a series of experiments with 695 young male drivers, the investigators found that showing the men a film that graphically portrayed the consequences of unsafe driving seemed to encourage some of them to drive recklessly. Orit Taubman, of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, reports the findings in the December issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science.
Many drivers take risks on the road even though they know accidents loom.
According to Taubman, this behavior can be explained by how much of a driver's self-worth rests in his or her driving skills. In their research, he and his colleagues found that men who related driving to their self-esteem tended to ignore the danger of reckless driving. Taubman's team first questioned the men on the importance of driving to their self-esteem. Next, some of the men were asked a series of questions that forced them to ponder their own mortality. Half of the men were not confronted with death imagery.