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DRIVERS IN EXPENSIVE CARS ARE RUDE

I have driven thousands upon thousands of miles in Canada, the United States, , Mexico, Central America, Hawaii  and in and Italy   so I have some idea of what kinds of drivers are driving cars and trucks.

In a revelation that won’t shock a lot of motorists, a Finnish professor has discovered that people who drive Audis and BMWs are more likely to cause, some form of  friction on the roads. He surveyed almost 2000 car owners.

They were asked about what type of car they drove, and how much they earned. They were also asked questions intended to reveal deeper personality traits. Were they open to new ideas or opinions? Are they conscientious, neurotic, extroverted or agreeable?

What Professor Lönnqvist and his team found supported a lot of previous research: people, that being that those drivers  who drive expensive cars are more likely to flaunt traffic laws  or, drive like real  assholes.

He found that Audi and BMW drivers in particular were more likely than others to ignore traffic rules. He said, “I had noticed that the ones most likely to run a red light, not give way to pedestrians and generally drive recklessly and too fast were often the ones driving fast German cars. The owners of these makes are also more likely to be argumentative, stubborn, and show a lack of empathy to other drivers or pedestrians .”

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that drivers of other cars  also act  the same as the ones the professor referred to.

The link is presumably explained by the importance they attach to high quality. All makes of car have a specific image, and by driving a reliable car, they are obviously sending out the message that they are reliable. therefore as drivers, they too are also reliable, well-organized and take care  in their health and work.

This link was shown hat between men and women and their cars. the self-centred luxury car driver was found to be prevalent only among men.

Previous studies in the US found similar links between expensive car drivers and their on-the-road driving techniques: they were more likely to cut off other drivers, and less likely to stop to let pedestrians cross the road.

The science is looking pretty unanimous.  Drivers of expensive cars are the worst. A new study has found that drivers of flashy vehicles are less likely to stop and allow pedestrians to cross the road and in the likelihood they'll slow down decreasing by 3% for every extra $1,000 that their vehicle is worth.

Researchers from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas speculated that the expensive car owners "felt a sense of superiority over other road users" and were less able to empathize with lowly sidewalk-dwellers.

They came to this conclusion after asking volunteers to cross a sidewalk hundreds of times, filming and analyzing the responses by car drivers.

Researchers used one white and one black man, and one white and one black woman  also finding that cars were more likely to yield for the white and female participants. Vehicles stopped 31% of the time for both women and white participants, compared with 24% of the time for men and 25% of the time for black volunteers.

But the best predictor of whether a car would stop was its cost, researchers discovered. "disengagement and a lower ability to interpret thoughts and feelings of others along with feelings of entitlement and narcissism may lead to a lack of empathy for pedestrians" among costly car owners, they theorized in the study.

And the discovery of a car-value-to-jerkish-behavior correlation isn't new; the research, published in the Journal of Transport and Health, backed up a Finnish study published last month that found that men who own flashy vehicles are more likely to be argaugmentative, stubborn, disagreeable and un sympathetic.

According to that survey of 1,892 drivers by the University of Helsinki, those deemed to have more disagreeable character traits were "more drawn to high-status cars.

“I had noticed that the ones most likely to run a red light, not give way to pedestrians and generally drive recklessly and too fast were often the ones driving fast German cars” Helsinki University's Jan-Erik Lönnqvist said in a press release.

He set out to discover what kind of person is more likely to buy an expensive car, creating a personality test of Finnish car owners. "The answers were unambiguous: self-centred men who are argumentative, stubborn, disagreeable and unempathetic are much more likely to own a high-status car such as an Audi, BMW or Mercedes. ”the press release stated.

These personality traits explain the desire to own high-status products, and the same traits also explain why such people break traffic regulations more frequently than others," Lönnqvist added.

His study cited previous research that indicated drivers behind the wheel of a costly vehicle are more likely to flout traffic regulations or drive recklessly. But he also found people with "conscientious" characters seek out pricey models, too.

People with this type of personality are, as a rule, respectable, ambitious, reliable and well-organized," the statement said. "They take care of themselves and their health and often perform well at work.

I don’t drive any longer since I am now 86 years old so I let my wife drive us in her car. She is in her late sixties and can handle  the stress of driving on roads and streets with the other  cars on the same streets and roads  You can’t imagine how relaxed I am now that  I am not driving a car any longer.