A psychological predictor of elders' driving performance: social-comparisons on the road.

The opportunity to drive is an important quality of life issue for the old because it provides independence (Sargent-Cox, Windsor,Walker & Anstey, 2011). Older individuals who stop driving are less likely to participate in social activities and more likely to have depressive symptoms (Edwards, Bart, O'Connor, & Cissell, 2010; Marottoli et al., 1997; Marottoli et al., 2000). Therefore, identifying factors that could allow older drivers to continue driving safely for as long as possible is critical. Research on older drivers has shown that increasing age alone does not predict the likelihood of having an adverse driving event, such as an accident or a near miss (Marottoli, 1993; Marottoli et al., 1994). Most studies of the risk factors that contribute to adverse driving events among older drivers have focused on visual, cognitive, or physical causes. An area that has received little attention is the relevance of psychological factors to adverse driving events in later life. The psychological factor on which this study focuses is derived from social-comparison theory, which postulates that individuals tend to compare their abilities to others who are similar to themselves (Festinger, 1954; Taylor & Lobel, 1989;Wood,1989).According to this theory,those experiencing negative affect can enhance their self-esteem by measuring themselves against those who are perceived to be less fortunate—a process called “downward social-comparison” (Crocker & Garcia, 2009; Wills, 1981). One way that social-comparisons may operate is by mitigating the effect of negative age stereotypes. Studies have found that older individuals tend to internalize the negative age stereotypes they encountered in their culture across life spans (e.g.,Levy,2009).In turn,these negative age stereotypes act as self-fulfilling prophecies: They are associated with a variety of adverse cognitive and physical outcomes (e.g., Levy, 2003; Wurm, Tesch-Romer & Tomasik, 2007). Driving combines cognitive and physical functioning. Among negative age stereotypes are ones portraying older individuals as unsafe, slow, and accident prone (Adler & Rottunda, 2010; Kite, Stockdale,Whitley, & Johnson, 2005; Martin, Balding, & O'Neill, 2005).A study found that 85% of drivers over the age of 65 felt they were victims of negative stereotypes and 68% felt at least some of these stereotypes were true (American Medical Association, 2010). The negative stereotypes that are often applied to older drivers in general are even more negative and prevalent in connection with older women drivers (Berger, 1986; Walsh, 2007). That is, stereotypes of both age and gender are used to target them. It has been shown that in order for negative stereotypes to have their most deleterious effect, they must be regarded by targeted individuals as self-relevant (Levy, Slade, Kunkel, & Kasl, 2002; O'Brien & Hummert, 2006). Social comparisons may provide a mechanism for older drivers to distance themselves from others in their age group and also, in the case of women, gender group. This distancing would then, perhaps, provide insulation from the adverse effect of the negative stereotypes. For if individuals believe the stereotypes are not applicable to themselves, there should be a reduced risk of acting in accordance with them. Specifically, an internalized belief by elders that older individuals and, even more, older women are inherently incompetent drivers is less likely to result in incompetent driving if social-comparisons deflect these stereotypes from themselves. We hypothesized that (1) older drivers who engaged in downward social-comparisons about their driving will be less likely to experience adverse driving events during the following two years, after controlling for relevant factors including age and cognitive ability; and (2) the effect of downward social-comparisons on adverse driving events will be stronger for older women than for older men.