Negative or positive? The effect of emotion and mood on risky driving

Abstract This research explored how two states of affect, emotion and mood, would influence driver’s risky driving behavior through risk perception and risk attitude. An experiment and a survey were adopted to test the two paths. In this model, negative affect played an opposite and more powerful role compared to positive affect. Study 1 was an experimental study with four treatment groups. Participants watched one of four video clips (traffic-related negative, traffic-unrelated negative, positive and neutral) and different emotions were induced. Negative emotion significantly elevated drivers’ risk perception but such perception failed to develop an appropriate attitude for drivers. A more favorable risk attitude resulted in increased reports of speeding. Turning from a “point” effect to a similar “period” effect, a survey was carried out in Study 2 to explore the effect of positive and negative mood instead of emotion. Mood states affected drivers’ risky driving behavior through risk perception as well as risk attitude, which was in line with the results of Study 1. The “bad is stronger than good” effect and the two paths in the model were discussed.

[1]  G. Matthews,et al.  Mood, neuroticism, and the encoding of affective words , 1995, Cognitive Therapy and Research.

[2]  K Rumar,et al.  The basic driver error: late detection. , 1990, Ergonomics.

[3]  A. Tversky,et al.  Affect, Generalization, and the Perception of Risk. , 1983 .

[4]  M. B. Arnold.  The nature of emotion : selected readings , 1968 .

[5]  Diego J. Pedregal,et al.  How many lives can bloody and shocking road safety advertising save? The case of Spain , 2012 .

[6]  Robert West,et al.  The Role of Personality and Attitudes in Traffic Accident Risk , 1997 .

[7]  E. Townsend.  Affective Influences on Risk Perceptions of, and Attitudes Toward, Genetically Modified Food , 2006 .

[8]  G. Clore,et al.  The Influence of Affect on Attitude , 2005 .

[9]  Chris S Dula,et al.  Risky, aggressive, or emotional driving: addressing the need for consistent communication in research. , 2003, Journal of Safety Research.

[10]  Arjun Chaudhuri,et al.  Consumption Emotion and Perceived Risk: A Macro-Analytic Approach , 1997 .

[11]  Thomas E. Nygren,et al.  Influence of positive affect on the subjective utility of gains and losses: it is just not worth the risk. , 1988, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[12]  Heikki Summala,et al.  Modeling Driver Behavior: A Pessimistic Prediction , 1985 .

[13]  H Kunreuther,et al.  Determinants of Priority for Risk Reduction: The Role of Worry , 2000, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[14]  Bertram Gawronski,et al.  And deplete us not into temptation: Automatic attitudes, dietary restraint, and self-regulatory resources as determinants of eating behavior , 2007 .

[15]  Paul Slovic,et al.  The affect heuristic , 2007, Eur. J. Oper. Res..

[16]  M. Ballard,et al.  Development and Evaluation of a Measure of Dangerous, Aggressive, Negative Emotional, and Risky Driving , 2003 .

[17]  J. Forgas,et al.  After the Movies , 1987 .

[18]  Birgitta Falk,et al.  Promoting traffic safety among young male drivers by means of elaboration-based interventions , 2009 .

[19]  L. F. Barrett.  Discrete Emotions or Dimensions? The Role of Valence Focus and Arousal Focus , 1998 .

[20]  G. Robert J. Hockey,et al.  Effects of negative mood states on risk in everyday decision making , 2000 .

[21]  I. Ajzen.  The theory of planned behavior , 1991 .

[22]  D. A. Kenny,et al.  The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. , 1986, Journal of personality and social psychology.

[23]  S Stradling,et al.  Errors and violations on the roads: a real distinction? , 1990, Ergonomics.

[24]  Dacher Keltner,et al.  Social power and emotional experience: Actor and partner effects within dyadic interactions , 2008 .

[25]  Stephen L. Brown,et al.  The Effect of Distressing Imagery on Attention to and Persuasiveness of an Antialcohol Message , 2012, Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education.

[26]  L Sjöberg,et al.  Risk perception by offshore oil personnel during bad weather conditions. , 1998, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[27]  Hilde Hestad Iversen,et al.  Risk-taking attitudes and risky driving behaviour , 2004 .

[28]  J. Forgas.  Mood and judgment: the affect infusion model (AIM). , 1995, Psychological bulletin.

[29]  P. Terry,et al.  Distinctions between emotion and mood , 2005 .

[30]  J. Elster.  Emotions and Economic Theory , 1998 .

[31]  S. Chaiken,et al.  The psychology of attitudes. , 1993 .

[32]  Joel B. Cohen,et al.  The Nature and Role of Affect in Consumer Behavior , 2008 .

[33]  Riadh Ladhari,et al.  Determinants of dining satisfaction and post-dining behavioral intentions. , 2008 .

[34]  T. Rundmo,et al.  RISK PERCEPTION AND DRIVING BEHAVIOUR AMONG ADOLESCENTS IN TWO NORWEGIAN COUNTIES BEFORE AND AFTER A TRAFFIC SAFETY CAMPAIGN , 2004 .

[35]  T. Rundmo,et al.  Perceptions of traffic risk in an industrialised and a developing country , 2009 .

[36]  Ann Williamson,et al.  Industry differences in accident causation , 1996 .

[37]  Alan E Stewart,et al.  Attributions of responsibility for motor vehicle crashes. , 2005, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[38]  F. Heider.  ATTITUDES AND COGNITIVE ORGANIZATION , 1977 .

[39]  J. Haidt,et al.  Differentiating Diversities: Moral Diversity Is Not Like Other Kinds1 , 2003 .

[40]  H. Eray Çelik,et al.  A model for risky driving attitudes in Turkey , 2004 .

[41]  D. Kirschenbaum.  Self-regulatory failure: A review with clinical implications. , 1987 .

[42]  B. Fischhoff,et al.  Travel Risks in a Time of Terror: Judgments and Choices , 2004, Risk analysis : an official publication of the Society for Risk Analysis.

[43]  Robert C. Solomon,et al.  On “Positive” and “Negative” Emotions , 2002 .

[44]  Torbjørn Rundmo,et al.  Traffic risk perception, road safety attitudes, and behaviors among road users: a comparison of Turkey and Norway , 2012 .

[45]  Jagadish Guria,et al.  An evaluation of a supplementary road safety package. , 2004, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[46]  N P Gregersen,et al.  Young drivers' overestimation of their own skill--an experiment on the relation between training strategy and skill. , 1996, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[47]  Bård Kuvaas,et al.  Impact of mood, framing, and need for cognition on decision makers' recall and confidence , 2004 .

[48]  K. Strongman,et al.  The psychology of emotion from everyday life to theory , 2003 .

[49]  Marjan Hagenzieker,et al.  Frequency, determinants, and consequences of different drivers’ emotions: An on-the-road study using self-reports, (observed) behaviour, and physiology , 2007 .

[50]  Tatia M.C. Lee,et al.  Could mood state affect risk-taking decisions? , 2003, Journal of affective disorders.

[51]  P. Ulleberg,et al.  Risk-taking attitudes among young drivers: the psychometric qualities and dimensionality of an instrument to measure young drivers' risk-taking attitudes. , 2002, Scandinavian journal of psychology.

[52]  N. Harré,et al.  Self-enhancement, crash-risk optimism and the impact of safety advertisements on young drivers. , 2005, British journal of psychology.

[53]  K. Vohs,et al.  Case Western Reserve University , 1990 .

[54]  P. Ulleberg,et al.  Personality, attitudes and risk perception as predictors of risky driving behaviour among young drivers , 2003 .

[55]  Wen-Bao Lin,et al.  Investigation on the model of consumers' perceived risk - integrated viewpoint , 2008, Expert Syst. Appl..

[56]  G. Ostir,et al.  Reliability of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) in medical rehabilitation , 2005, Clinical rehabilitation.

[57]  Torbjørn Rundmo,et al.  Using cluster analysis to test the cultural theory of risk perception , 2007 .

[58]  Wang Zheng,et al.  A Survey of Road Traffic Trauma (RTT) in China , 1995 .

[59]  Xie Xiaofei,et al.  A Study on Risky Driving Behavior and Related Factors , 2007 .

[60]  Christopher K. Hsee,et al.  Risk as Feelings , 2001, Psychological bulletin.