A Driving Anger: The Psychology of Road Rage

(Hardback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Why are today's drivers so angry and what can we do about it

Road rage is hardly new, but its incidence and intensity are rising. On any given day, at least one person in the U.S. is shot or injured in a road rage incident, and just about everyone has a road rage story to tell. A recent study found that 80% of all drivers admit to experiencing significant anger while behind the wheel. Expressions of driving anger can involve verbal threats, stabbings, intentionally ramming into vehicles, following a driver for miles, and, too often lately, lethal shootings.

In A Driving Rage, author Anne ODwyer, who has been teaching, researching, and talking with people about road rage for over 20 years, seeks to answer the question: Why do so many people who are otherwise calm, cool, and collected become enraged when behind the wheel

Drawing from psychological theory, research, and data as she weaves together explorations with personal accounts of driving anger, the author challenges common misconceptions and describes the roots of anger and the primary psychological triggers of road rage. These include feelings of anonymity, biases we tend to hold about strangers, unrealistic expectations of independence on the roadway, misdirected outrage, and being in a rush. She also compares driving anger in both the US and abroad and to related lifestyle anger such as air rage, checkout rage, and sports rage.

Armed with an understanding of the causes and effects of road rage, ODwyer concludes with nine concrete strategies and technologies that can help reduce driving anger in ourselves, those we drive with, and other drivers.

Author Bio

Dr. Anne ODwyer is an associate professor of Psychology and former dean of students at Bard College Simons Rock. She has been published in the British Journal of Social Psychology and the Journal of Applied Social Psychology and has presented her own research on road rage in presentations at the Association for Psychological Science and the New England Psychological Association. She has been cited in news reports about road rage and air rage in numerous sources, including The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe, New York Daily News, and the Ottawa Citizen. ODwyer currently resides in Housatonic, MA.