Relationship Between Sensation Seeking and Attitude on Reckless Riding Behavior in Jabodetabek, Indonesia

A problem that affects the public, especially in big cities, is traffic accidents. In Southeast Asia, especially in developing countries, the greatest accident rate (28%) is for two-wheeled vehicles (World Health Organization 2018). Twowheeled motorized vehicles or motorcycles are widely used in Southeast Asia, especially in Indonesia. Motorcycles are more affordable than cars and easier to use in traffic jams (Chen, 2009). In Indonesia, motorcycle accidents are approximately 75% of all traffic-related accidents (Tribunotomotive, 2018); thus, reducing them would benefit society. A traffic accident is an unexpected event that occurs on main streets, involving motor vehicles and other road users, resulting in damage and human casualties (e.g., minor traffic accidents like grazed into another vehicles and serious effect, namely individual death; Saputra, 2017). Traffic accidents involving motorcyclists often involve young individuals (teenagers and young adults; Cordelliari et al, 2016; Falco et al., 2013; Hatfield, Fernandez & Job, 2014; Parker, 2012; Wong, Chung, & Huang, 2010). Sensation seeking as a personality trait is correlated with age; individuals with a higher sensation-seeking level tend to perform risky activities, a phenomCorresponding Author: Dianti E. Kusumawardhani Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Indonesia. Depok Campus, West Java, 16424, Indonesia Email: dianti.kusumawardhani@ui.ac.id Abstract Transportation needs are increasing along with traffic problems, such as traffic accidents, congestion, and density of motorized vehicles. In Indonesia, especially in its large, crowded cities, accidents involving two-wheeled motorized vehicles are frequent. Human factors such as personality and behavior are a cause of accidents involving careless driving. Additionally, sensation seeking and the attitude toward reckless behavior influence the reckless behavior of motorcyclists in Indonesia, especially in the Jabodetabek area. Methods: data were obtained through a self-report questionnaire. The 69 participants (F:40, M:29) were motorbike riders aged 18–35 years who had an Indonesian driving license type C and had ridden a motorcycle daily for a minimum of 2 years. The questionnaire comprised 17 items that measured sensation seeking and attitudes toward reckless riding. Prerequisite for mediating the relationship among the variables, sensation seeking must correlate with attitudes and reckless riding such that the attitude variable that is a mediator must also correlate with reckless riding. Therefore, in this study, the mediating effect of attitudes in the relation between sensation seeking and reckless riding was tested. Our result demonstrates that’s influence of reckless riding attitude as a partial mediator between sensation seeking and reckless riding.