Psychologist: Drivers behave on the road like wolves in a pack
Andrzej Markowski, traffic psychologist, vice president of the Association of Transport Psychologists in Poland, talks about why many men treat driving like a fight and how to deal with road rage.
Do men drive better than women or worse? Police statistics leave no doubt that they cause more accidents.
- Men definitely run no worse than women, they have more accidents. This is because they drive faster, they drive more boldly, they have a much lower margin of safety than women. They just need to show off in front of women, dominate on the road, which is due to genetic determinants.
So there are biological theories about the male struggle for dominance on the road?
- Definitely yes, and this is not a theory, but a practice. In the case of a male driver, a completely different mechanism of his psyche works than in the case of a woman. Man fights first of all for the first place in the herd, if I may use a term from the animal world. So he has to charge, ahead of others, constantly prove himself and prove his strength. In this way, the guy provides himself - or maybe he wants to do it subconsciously - access to as many women as possible. And this, in fact, is the biology of the human species - and not only the human species. Thus, the driving style of men in their prime differs from that of women. In the latter case, aggression is almost out of the question, although, as always, there are exceptions.
So you can estimate in advance who is driving without looking out the windshield?
- Usually you can. An experienced male driver, experienced in road fighting, can tell from afar who is driving the car: his competitor, i.e. another man, a member of the fair sex, or a gentleman in a hat. After all, this is what is commonly called older men, "Sunday drivers" who prefer a quiet ride and, surprisingly, most often wear hats. Unless both the extra and the gentleman in the hat are traveling calmly.
Such a fight of males on the road, unfortunately, has its own sad epilogue - accidents, death, disability of many other road users.
“And this is worth realizing before we push the gas pedal harder in the car. Despite these biological conditions, it is worth and should drive in accordance with the rules of the road. There are many other competitions.
See also: Aggression while driving - how to deal with crazy people on the roads
