What Influences Driving Behaviour? Psychology Of Driving. A Cognitive Psychology Podcast Episode.

If you’ve been a long-term listener of The Psychology World Podcast then you might be aware that I am a massive fan of The Handsome Podcast. It’s a fun comedy podcast with three of my favourite comedians, including the brilliant Mae Martin. On the podcast, Mae recently spoke about passing their driving test, they were feeling more confident and their behaviour had changed since they passed their test. Therefore, in this cognitive psychology podcast episode, you’re going to learn about the complex interaction of social processes, emotional processes and mental processes that influence our driving behaviour. If you enjoy learning about cognitive psychology, social psychology and what happens behind the wheel, then this will be a great episode for you.

Today’s psychology podcast episode has been sponsored by Personality Psychology and Individual Differences. Available from all major eBook retailers and you can order the paperback and hardback copies from Amazon, your local bookstore and local library, if you request it. Also available as an AI-narrated audiobook from selected audiobook platforms and library systems. For example, Kobo, Spotify, Barnes and Noble, Google Play, Overdrive, Baker and Taylor and Bibliotheca.

Why Is Understanding Driving Behaviour Important?

Psychologists, policy makers and other professionals need to understand what drives our behaviour behind the wheel, because if we could understand the minds of drivers and understand why road rage happens, why we don’t remember certain parts of journeys and what happens when we’re distracted. Then this can help us to create safer, more efficient roads that can save lives, decrease stress and make our lives easier.

In addition, driving psychology isn’t a brand-new subdiscipline of psychology. Instead, we can trace the roots of driving psychology back to the earliest days of the automobile because ever since we started travelling in horseless carriages, psychologists have been interested in the mental processes occurring when we drive. This changed and became more important in the 1920s when researchers shifted their focus towards understanding what happens in the driver’s seat. They wanted to make sense of the cognitive processes that happen when humans meet machines.

Personally, I really wanted to learn about the psychology of driving because I understand what Mae Martin was talking about after they passed their test. Being able to drive is a lot more freeing, it builds your confidence and it does open up a lot of opportunities for you. I never ever thought I would be able to drive, because of my at-the-time undiagnosed dyspraxia that impairs driving. It took me four times to pass my test, I couldn’t understand the clutch and I was not a bad driver or learner by any stretch, but for me, driving was immensely stressful.

Nonetheless, over time, as I practised more, I relaxed and finally passed, I would actually say that my mental health also experienced a positive increase. I could do whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. I didn’t need to be dependent on parents for lifts, I could go out with my friends and family whenever and driving is just a lot easier for everyone.

But what are the social, emotional and cognitive processes that happen behind the wheel? That’s the focus of the rest of this podcast episode.

How Do Emotions Impact Driving?

To help us start diving into the psychology of driving, I think we should start with emotions, because driving is a very emotional experience. Not only because of the anxiety, the frustration of traffic and the stress of being late to work. Yet road rage, honking horns and people swearing at each other on the road are very common, and we always tend to think about the emotional side of driving. 

There's always one or two stories a week from my dad about some "idiot" on the road.

Anyway, to ease us into looking at how our emotions impact driving, anxiety as well as stress impact our driving behaviour because these heightened emotional states can cause poor decision-making, panic reactions and aggressive driving. This increases the risk of accidents and crashes because our cognitive processes are not as effective as usual.

More on cognition and driving in the next section.

This is one of the reasons why, even though holy Google Maps says my journey to work is only 25-minutes in the morning, I always leave an hour or an hour-and-a-quarter before work starts. This means I can just relax, listen to my music and decrease the pressure on myself when driving.

In terms of driving risk, one of the reasons why I enjoy having a small car is because it allows me to fit through small gaps. Therefore, our sense of risk can impact our driving behaviour because when a person is confident as well as happy, they are more likely to take chances on the road and/ or speed. On the other hand, when a person is feeling sad or anxious, they are less likely to do this. Instead, an anxious and sad person is likely to be hesitant and overly cautious on the road.

It reminds me when I was in sixth form (this is one of our 16–18-year-old education options in the United Kingdom), me and my psychology class were talking with our teacher, someone in the class had just passed their test and she was saying that she was really anxious on the roads. Granted, this was only because she was a new driver. My psychology teacher explained that that's good, because her anxiety about driving would make her more cautious, so she'd be less likely to have an accident. 

I'm not sure I agree with that 100%, but it is a kind thing to say, because I sometimes think overly cautious driving can be just as dangerous as speeding based on some of the situations I've seen in my experience.

When it comes to road rage, this is the psychological state where our driving frustration boils over into aggression. Road Rage is a complex interplay of factors, like a sense of anonymity, perceived slights and stress. And the interesting thing about road rage, it only really happens in a car or other form of vehicle. If someone steps in front of you when you're walking, you might roll your eyes, sigh or tut, but if someone slips into the lane in front of you in a car, then you're more likely to experience rage.

Maybe it's something to do with the increased perceived danger of driving, accidents and the sheer amount of money damage might cost you. 

On the whole, I've mentioned this a lot in the clinical psychology focused episodes, but developing emotional regulation techniques can be a useful tool to help you drive safely. For example, positive self-talk, breathing and listening to calming music can help you to keep your emotions regulated and focus on the road. 

On a final personal note for this section, even though no one would ever agree with me that this is relaxing music. It's one of the reasons why I have a playlist full of Demonslayer music. In fact, as I write this section, I've been listening to a song called "Demon Slayer: Rengoku

Theme | EPIC VERSION (Rengoku 9th Form)". It's just music that relaxes me, gives me background noise and helps me to focus on the road and whatever else I am doing.

This is even more important if I've had a difficult day at work, I've got a lot on my mind and I simply need the drive to and from work to relax me. 

I would link the importance of knowing about how emotions impact driving with clinical and educational psychology, but they are very similar to the applications I give in the next section.

How Do Our Brains Navigate The Road?

Whenever you get into a car for the first time, I think we can all admit that driving in an urban area is just scary. There are so many cars, people and bumps in the road that we are scared to hit. We are panicking about not hitting them, controlling our speed and focusing on the other ten thousand things that we need to do as drivers.

Yet how do our brains navigate the road?

When it comes to navigating the road, our perception and attention of our environment is flat out critical for safe driving. If you have bad perception or poor attention, then honestly you are a danger on the road. Since good perception and attention allows our brains to focus on the critical details when driving, like when a car in front suddenly brakes for no reason or when a seagull suddenly lands in the middle of the road and there are no cars behind you so you brake.

Although, our brains need to strike a careful balance because if our brains focus too much on the details, then we can easily become overwhelmed and distracted by the sheer amount of things to focus on. This is where “autopilot” comes in, because if you’re a driver then you must have had moments that you suddenly realise that you’ve been driving without being consciously thinking about it.

Autopilot is a phenomenon that highlights the potential dangers and efficiency of our cognitive processes.

Personally, when it comes to autopilot, motorways (or highways for you Americans) is a major area for me. I can be driving down the M2, listening to my Demonslayer music and suddenly realise I have not been paying attention for a good five or ten minutes because driving on a motorway is so easy. Yet I would add that one place I have and hopefully will not be on autopilot is on country lanes near where I used to work, because you really need to pay attention to make sure a car isn’t6 going to fly round a blind corner, crash into you and injure you.

Another cognitive process involved in driving is our memory because this allows us to recall routes, the meaning of traffic signs, road rules and we can draw on our past experiences to help our current driving. A general example of this is our procedural memory allows us to drive to a familiar place without consciously thinking about it. 

Our brain does this to free up cognitive resources.

Personally, an example of me using past knowledge to inform current driving is on the way to the place I used to work, at our finish time, there was always an annoying van parked outside the village shop. And because it was a village, this was the only main road so all the traffic in the village would stop because of this one silly van on a corner. I needed to use my memory either to make sure I slowed down earlier because of the van and traffic. Or I remembered to turn left at the roundabout outside work to avoid the van and traffic.

Sadly I sometimes forgot to turn left. 

Another cognitive process involved in driving is decision-making, because whenever we're driving we're making hundreds of little decisions in the blink of an eye. From predicting the movement of other drivers, calculating vehicle distance and doing a pros and cons analysis before we take an action. 

An action where a single mistake could be fatal, or cost us a lot of money to repair.

Finally, I want to wrap up this cognitive section on driving by mentioning that I understand a lot of people think we can multitask, but in reality, humans cannot multitask. When we "multitask" what is actually happening is our brain is switching our cognitive processes and redirecting them towards different tasks. This is why when we're on the phone and driving (something you should never ever do), our performance suffers, because instead of focusing on the road, our cognitive processes are directed towards talking on the phone.

Linking these cognitive processes to clinical psychology, I would argue whilst there are not a lot of direct applications between treating a client and driving behaviour, it is still important to have an awareness of. Of course, the major exception is unless you're supporting a client who has severe driving anxiety or driving is somehow involved in their mental health difficulties. Like, if they have depression after a bereavement caused by a driving accident.

I think being aware of cognitive processes in driving can be useful for psychoeducation in therapy. If a client is struggling to understand the importance of our thoughts, emotions and our mental processes, then using driving (especially if it's a passion for the client) might be a useful reframe. 

In addition, when thinking about this from an educational psychology viewpoint, being aware of driving cognition can be useful. One of the jobs of an educational psychologist is to create educational resources and improve student motivation as well as engagement. If I was creating psychology content, I would be linking to these real-world examples that are tangible and relatable to my students. This will also allow them to see the value of their learning as this can improve engagement too. 

How Do Social Processes Impact Driving Behaviour?

Some people believe that driving is a very lonely activity, and I understand why. When I'm behind the wheel, it's just me, my overly dramatic music and my car. I drive alone, minding my own business and I get from point A to B. Yet in reality, driving might be one of the most socially demanding activities we do, and driving draws on a lot more social psychology than you would think. Especially, as whenever we go on the road, we are constantly interacting with other drivers, laws and regulations and pedestrians. 

All these people and social interactions impact our driving behaviour. 

However, the first social process I want to draw on comes from cultural psychology. The cultural differences in our driving norms as well as behaviours are rather interesting, because what's polite and acceptable in one country can be deeply offensive and dangerous in another country. 

I remember a few years ago me and my former best friend were talking about the difference between flashing your lights in the UK and France. In the UK, we flash our headlights at people to thank them or to tell them they can come through, and we're happy to wait for them. Yet in France, if you flash your headlights, you're telling the other driver that you're coming through. 

Another personal example is back in 2007 and my family went to Florida for Christmas and Disneyland. My dad got a rental and we didn't know that in the US, there's a driving rule that goes something along the lines of, if a traffic light is red, you can still turn right. So my dad was waiting because the light was red and all the Americans behind him were honking, getting frustrated and annoyed that he was just sitting there.

It's a good example of how waiting at a red light is acceptable in the UK, but in the US, it isn't acceptable when you can turn right. 

On the whole, the cultural nuances of driving help to show the social nature of driving and why you need to understand the local norms when driving in a new place. 

Another social process involved in driving is our social identity, because everything down to the car we drive, our car accessories and our driving style are all expressions of our social identity. As well as for some drivers, they see their vehicle as an extension of their personality and this can lead to more performative and aggressive driving. 

My mind goes towards an old family friend who put things on his exhaust to make his car louder, and he would rev his engine so everyone would know he had an expensive, showy car. As you can tell, I know next to nothing about cars and the names of their equipment that makes them louder, but some people are somewhat desperate to show off their status, money and their car by making it as loud as possible so it draws attention. 

Whereas for me, my car definitely reflects my more laid-back and maybe practical approach to life. I enjoy that my car is small, affordable and about 12 years old. I don't want a massive status car, I don't want the latest expensive model and I certainly don't want something overly complicated. I honestly just want something practical, reliable and gets me from point A to B. 

And affordability is a good point as well. 

The penultimate social process involved in driving is obedience and conformity. I'll be the first to admit that it seems whenever social psychology is mentioned obedience and conformity are never too far behind. And this is even more true for driving because as drivers we need to conform to traffic laws, regulations and the highway code. Since we're more likely to follow these rules when we see other people follow these rules too. Yet we are more willing to break these rules when we see others breaking them. This is why understanding the role of social influence is critical when we look at the psychology behind driving and safety. 

Personally, I always try to be conscious of my speed, my driving and how I'm impacting others. Of course, I'm human, I make mistakes and on occasion, I've sped. Yet I always remain mindful of sticking to the speed limit and other rules even when it annoys other drivers. 

It's good to know that by sticking to the rules myself, I might be influencing other people to drive safely too. 

Finally, intergroup dynamics is a major role in driving, and this is even more true if you have passengers in the car. Since peer pressure can influence our driving, and sometimes this is for the worse. For instance, young drivers are more likely to engage in risky behaviours when they're driving their friends. 

I remember a few years ago in the news, in the UK, the government was thinking about banning new drivers from driving passengers for the first year after they passed their test because of an increase in deaths of passengers in new driver's cars. It was something like that. It never happened but it shows how driving with our friends can be fatal. 

Personally, I do notice I drive differently depending on who's in the car with me. When I was driving my exes around, I was always extra careful, I made sure I made as few mistakes as possible and I was the best driver I could be. I wanted them to feel relaxed, good and I wanted them to enjoy driving with me. Whereas when I'm by myself, I am still the safest possible driver I can be, but I am less militant about it.

On the other hand, I have no problem making myself look bad here because as a teenager learning to drive, I was a terrible passenger. I would gently point out the mistakes until my parents lovingly told me to shut up. It's another example how people's opinions or being annoying could have a potential impact on our driving. 

How Do External Factors Impact Driving Behaviour?

Before we dive into the role of personality and individual differences in driving, I want to explore the role that our environment and external factors have on our driving behaviour. Since the world around us impacts our behaviours without us realising. For instance, the weather impacts driving behaviour because bright sunlight, fog, snow and rain can increase our stress levels, and changes our risk perception. Since some drivers become overly cautious when the weather turns bad, and other drivers do not change their driving to match the weather condition. I fully admit that this is something I need to get better at, because I do slightly change my driving to the weather, but I feel like I should be doing more. Granted, if it's raining badly then I don't really allow myself to go over 60 mph on the motorway instead of my normal 70 mph. This is something I need to work on. Therefore, this shows how understanding the weather affects our mental state and our driving behaviour.

In other words, please adjust your driving to the conditions. Your driving will hopefully be safer.

Another external factor that impacts driving behaviour is time pressure. We've all been in situations where we've been running late for something, we've been feeling anxious and stressed and even though this is a perfectly normal response. It can and does increase the likelihood that we would take risks on the road, make poor decisions and drive more aggressively. This highlights the importance of monitoring our emotions and how they will impact our driving, giving ourselves plenty of time for journeys, but also, just take a breath. I understand how annoying, frustrating and how much you might want to swear when you suddenly get stuck in traffic on the way to something important. Definitely swear as a way to release your frustration, but also take a breath, untense your body and focus on safe driving. 

In the longer term, you'll be more grateful for arriving late than injured, your car got written off or worse.

A penultimate external factor that impacts driving behaviour is technology, because technology is constantly changing how we interact with the road and our vehicles. For example, GPS, the advanced safety features and reversing cameras are all common in modern cars. My car is old enough that it doesn't have any of these features, and as an interesting side note, I was watching a crime drama once and a computer hacker mentioned how cars built after 2010 were just a hack waiting to happen. Of course, I do not know if it's true because it was a crime drama, so fiction, but it highlights how advanced the technology in our cars has become. 

In terms of psychology, increased use of technology in our vehicles can reduce cognitive load and improve road safety, yet technology can also lead to distraction and overreliance. This might decrease safety.

Personally, this is why I am a little curious and unsure about using mobile phones as GPSs. I used to always use a SAT-NAV religiously as my GPS, because I didn't want to use my phone. When I was using this, there were no real distractions, but then my SAT-NAV broke. I switched to my phone as a GPS and it is amazing how tempting it is to look at emails, change your music and look at notifications when you're stuck in traffic or driving along on a calm road. I might have done this once, but then I reminded myself how dangerous forming that habit would be. 

Yet it is so, so easy to fall into that trap when driving.

The final environmental factor that impacts driving behaviour is the design of our roads and infrastructure, because if roads are well-designed, clearly signed and they have a logical traffic flow then this can reduce stress and increase safe driving. Whereas poorly designed intersections and confusing road layouts then lead to driving errors, frustration and decreased safe driving. 

Tapping into the real world, we've all seen drivers that have changed lanes coming up to a turning or roundabout, indicated at the last moment and perhaps made a poor decision to get into the correct lane, because they don't know the correct layout of the road. I made this mistake a few years ago near where I lived, because in the UK, coming up to a roundabout, the left-hand lane is for turning left or going straight ahead at the roundabout. The other or right-hand lane is for going right. Yet near where I live, if you want to go straight ahead, you have to go in the right-hand lane which is very confusing and difficult when the right-hand lane is full of traffic because everyone thinks you're turning left. 

It's an innocent mistake but it can show how easily this can happen in the real world and on a busy roundabout with a lot of tense, stressed and frustrated drivers, I can see how this leads to a decrease in safe driving. 

How Do Personality Factors Impact Driving Behaviour?

The final area of behaviour that we need to look at is our personality and individual differences impact our driving because no two drivers are the same. I think you only need to look at families to see the differences in drivers. I would protest that I am a great driver but my parents think that I brake too early. My defence is braking slower and for longer improves fuel economy. I would argue that some people in my family should indicate more, but they are a great driver. This goes to show differences between drivers.

Therefore, if we look at the Big Five personality traits we can see the impact these have on driving. For example, extraversion relates to how outgoing you are and introversion focuses on how you need your own company to recharge your social battery. I tend to remember introversion as you get energy from being alone and extraversion is when you get energy from being around others. This is not a personality psychology podcast episode so that is the extent of the definition I will give. 

Anyway, people higher in extraversion might be more likely to engage in sensation-seeking behaviours whilst driving. For example, extroverted people are naturally more likely to take risks, like speeding, weaving in between traffic and tailgating. To me, there is nothing more annoying than people weaving through traffic and cutting in way too close for comfort. So a person's likelihood to take risks is influenced by their personality traits and past experiences. 

Building upon this, sensation-seeking behaviour has a strong connection to speeding and risk-taking, because risk takers could see the road as their own personal racetrack so they push the limits of speed and safety in pursuit of their own excitement. Of course, this is dangerous to themselves, their friends and other road users.

I hope I never forget this moment but I was working an Open Evening event years ago and it was a great night, but I was stuck with a very rich student. We clearly came from very different backgrounds, because his student apartment had private parking in a gated driveway, induction hobs and more advanced features that most students could only dream of. His opinion was "it's okay. It's not bad". I would love to have those things as a student. Anyway, he was telling me how he drove down a high-speed road near the university at 140 mph for fun. Not only is that very illegal because the speed limit was 70 mph, but there are cameras and that is dangerous to his life, his passenger's life and the other cars on the road.

It was such a shocking moment that I was just surprised at.

If we look at conscientiousness, individuals high in this personality trait tend to be more cautious drivers as well as rule-abiding people. For example, conscientious drivers tend to be more organised, attentive to details as well as responsible compared to drivers lower in the personality trait. This means they tend to make safer drivers, because they are more likely to maintain their vehicle properly, follow traffic rules and avoid risky behaviours. 

Cognitive Psychology Conclusion

When I originally planned this podcast episode, I didn’t really know what I was going to find about the psychology of driving. At best, I thought I was going to find a lot of pop psychology articles and opinions, and at worst, I thought I would find nothing at all. Yet a lot of brilliant researchers, writers and other people have created a wealth of information on what impacts our driving behaviour over the years, so I am very grateful. Not only because it makes my life as a writer easier, but also because I got to learn a lot of fascinating pieces of information.

We learnt about how our cognitive processes help us navigate the road, our emotions can make our driving safer or more dangerous, how our personality can endanger ourselves on the road by impacting our choices, and how our social interactions on the road can help us to obey or break traffic laws amongst other findings.

This has been a fascinating episode.

I would like to wrap up the episode by focusing on the three most important factors that I believe we can take away from this episode and apply to our own lives. Hopefully, these three factors will help us to become safer or even safer drivers:

·       Learn self-soothing techniques to help you destress when driving, so your negative emotions do not make your driving unsafe. I talk more about self-soothing in my book, Healing As A Survivor.

·       Check in with your emotions before and during your drive, so you can destress if needed to help you keep you and your passengers safe.

·       Think about your personality, consider how it impacts your driving and try to accommodate for your personality traits if needed.

As I mentioned at the start of the episode, driving is very freeing, it’s brilliant and it can be a real confidence boost. Yet it has to be done safely so you can protect yourself, your passengers and everyone else using the road.

I hope you enjoyed today’s cognitive psychology podcast episode.

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Cognitive Psychology References and Further Reading

Broadbent, D. P., D'Innocenzo, G., Ellmers, T. J., Parsler, J., Szameitat, A. J., & Bishop, D. T. (2023). Cognitive load, working memory capacity and driving performance: A preliminary fNIRS and eye tracking study. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour, 92, 121-132.

Chai, C., Zhou, Z., Yan, Y., Chen, C., & Yang, L. (2020, September). Assessing the relationship between self-reported driving behavior, psychology and risky driving based on GPS trajectory data from car-hailing apps. In 2020 IEEE 23rd International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC) (pp. 1-7). IEEE.

Dula, C. S., & Geller, E. S. (2003). Risky, aggressive, or emotional driving: Addressing the need for consistent communication in research. Journal of Safety Research, 34(5), 559-566.

Fan, Y. (2022). Detection of driver fatigue driving behaviour based on deep learning algorithm from the perspective of traffic psychology. Journal of Psychology in Africa, 32(3), 303-309.

https://neurolaunch.com/psychology-of-driving/

Özkan, T., & Lajunen, T. (2011). Person and environment: Traffic culture. In Handbook of traffic psychology (pp. 179-192). Academic Press.

Scheiber, N. (2022). How Uber uses psychological tricks to push its drivers' buttons. In Ethics of data and analytics (pp. 362-371). Auerbach Publications.

Smorti, M., Andrei, F., & Trombini, E. (2018). Trait emotional intelligence, personality traits and social desirability in dangerous driving. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 58, 115-124.

Song, H., Qu, D., Hu, C., Wang, T., & Ji, L. (2024). Psychological field effect analysis and car-following behavior modeling based on driving style. International Journal of Automotive Technology, 25(5), 1065-1076.

Tao, P., Ren, X., Wu, C., Zhang, C., & Li, H. (2024). Lane-changing decision intention prediction of surrounding drivers for intelligent driving. IEEE Access, 12, 42834-42848.

Taubman-Ben-Ari, O., Mikulincer, M., & Gillath, O. (2004). The multidimensional driving style inventory—scale construct and validation. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 36(3), 323-332.

Thøgersen, J., Vatn, A., Aasen, M., Dunlap, R. E., Fisher, D. R., Hellevik, O., & Stern, P. (2021). Why do people continue driving conventional cars despite climate change? Social-psychological and institutional insights from a survey of Norwegian commuters. Energy Research & Social Science, 79, 102168.

Ulleberg, P., & Rundmo, T. (2003). Personality, attitudes and risk perception as predictors of risky driving behaviour among young drivers. Safety Science, 41(5), 427-443.

Wickens, C. M., Mann, R. E., Stoduto, G., Butters, J. E., Ialomiteanu, A., & Smart, R. G. (2012). Does gender moderate the relationship between driver aggression and its risk factors? Accident Analysis & Prevention, 45, 10-18.

World Health Organization. (2018). Global status report on road safety 2018. Geneva: World Health Organization.

Yagil, D. (1998). Gender and age-related differences in attitudes toward traffic laws and traffic violations. Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, 1(2), 123-135.

Zhang, T., Chan, A. H., & Zhang, W. (2015). Dimensions of driving anger and their relationships with aberrant driving. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 81, 124-133.

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