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Territorial Markings as a Predictor of Driver Aggression and Road Rage 1
Author(s) -
Szlemko William J.,
Benfield Jacob A.,
Bell Paul A.,
Deffenbacher Jerry L.,
Troup Lucy
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00364.x
Subject(s) - anger , aggression , psychology , rage (emotion) , constructive , social psychology , aggressive driving , poison control , human factors and ergonomics , computer science , environmental health , medicine , process (computing) , operating system
Aggressive driving has received substantial media coverage during the past decade. We report 3 studies testing a territorial explanation of aggressive driving. Altman (1975) described attachment to, personalization of, and defense of primary territories (e.g., home) as being greater than for public territories (e.g., sunbathing spot on a beach). Aggressive driving may occur when social norms for defending a primary territory (i.e., one's automobile) become confused with less aggressive norms for defending a public territory (i.e., the road). Both number of territory markers (e.g., bumper stickers, decals) and attachment to the vehicle were significant predictors of aggressive driving. Mere presence of a territory marker predicts increased use of the vehicle to express anger and decreased use of adaptive/constructive expressions.