Hostility, driving anger, and dangerous driving: the emerging role of hemispheric preference

Personality Traits and Attitudes Toward Traffic Safety Predict Risky Behavior Across Young, Adult, and Older Drivers

In the last few decades, several studies have investigated the role of personality traits and attitudes toward traffic safety in predicting driving behaviors in diverse types of drivers across several countries. However, to the best of our knowledge, no studies so far have investigated the possible moderating role played by age in relation to predictors of accident risk. Answering this open question would provide information about the generalizability of the model across different subpopulations and would make possible the tailoring of the interventions to specific target groups. The study involved 1,286 drivers from three different age groups (young: n = 435; adult: n = 412; old: n = 439) which completed a questionnaire measuring drivers’ personality traits (i.e., anxiety, hostility, excitement seeking, altruism, normlessness), positive attitudes toward traffic safety, risky driving behaviors (i.e., errors, lapses, and traffic violations), accident involvement and number of traffic fines issued in the last 12 months. Multi-group Variance Based Structural Equation Modeling (VB-SEM) across the three age groups showed that the hypothesized model had a good fit with the data in all the three age groups. However, some pattern of relationships between the variables varied across the three groups, for example, if considering the direct effects of personality traits on risky driving behaviors, anxiety, altruism, and normlessness predicted violations only in young and adult drivers, whereas excitement seeking was associated with lapses only in young drivers; anxiety was a positive predictor of drivers’ errors, both in adult and older drivers, whereas excitement seeking predicted errors in adult and young drivers. On the other hand, attitudes significantly and negatively predicted violations and errors in all the three age groups, whereas they significantly and negatively predicted lapses only in young and older drivers. The results of the present study provided empirical basis to develop evidence-based road safety interventions differently tailored to the specific life’s stage of the drivers.

The Relationship between Exposure to Missiles and PTSD Symptoms as a Function of Hemispheric Preference in Israelis

Recent research proposes that left hemispheric lateralization (HL) may protect against the effects of life events on mental distress. This study extends these findings by examining the protective role of left HL in the relationship between war threat (missile exposure) and PTSD symptoms. A sample of 186 Israelis, exposed to missile attacks, completed brief scales of self-reported missile exposure, a subjective and a neuropsychological HL measure, and of PTSD symptoms. The sample was split into right HL and left HL individuals on both HL measures. Self-reported missile exposure was positively associated with PTSD symptoms in right HL, but not in left HL individuals on both HL measures. These results replicate, extend our previous results and suggest that left HL may even protect against the effects of severe life threatening events. Results are discussed in relation to neuropsychological and neurophysiological differences between the hemispheres.