Friday 24 July 14:05 - 15:35

Hall: 10 - Palazzina 2

Chair and Presenter: Björklund Gunilla

Division: Division 13: Traffic and Transportation Psychology

The topic of this symposium is how emotions influence road users' behavior, with focus on driving anger. Emotions in general, and anger in particular, appear to influence what people pay attention to and the amount of cognitive effort they spend in processing different stimuli (Lerner & Tiedens, 2006). Driving anger has for the last decades been subjected to great interest in traffic safety research. This interest is well justified as anger while driving may interfere with cognitive and motor performance and in that way increase the likelihood of an accident (Deffenbacher, Oetting, & Lynch, 1994). An angry driver is also more disposed to perform what is called aggressive behaviors, such as weaving in and out of traffic, cutting in front of other drivers, tailgating, speeding, and running red traffic lights. Other aggressive behaviors, such as headlight flashing, may not, as such, be dangerous but may provoke other drivers and make them angry and behave aggressively as well.


In this symposium, different aspects of emotions, and particular anger, will be presented. Ibrahim Öztürk and Amanda Stephens start with talking about emotions in general, definitions, cross-cultural aspects, situational triggers, and give us a hint about the future regarding emotions and technology. Federica Biassoni will then talk about anger expression and emotion regulation. Mette Møller continues in the field of anger expression, including adaptive/constructive expressions, and show us a comparison between drivers and cyclists. Finally, Gunilla Björklund will talk about driving behavior under the influence of stress and irritation.


References:
Deffenbacher, J. L., Oetting, E. R., & Lynch, R. S. (1994). Development of a driving anger scale. Psychological Reports, 74, 83-91.
Lerner, J. S., & Tiedens, L. Z. (2006). Portrait of the angry decision maker: How appraisal tendencies shape anger's influence on cognition. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 19, 115-137.