The relationship between self and other in aggressive driving and driver behaviors across countries

Abstract

The main aim of the present study was to investigate the moderating role of aggressive driving of others on the relationship between self-reported aggressive driving behaviors committed by driver himself/herself and drivers’ aberrant and positive driver behaviors (i.e. errors, violations, and positive driver behaviors) among drivers from Estonia, Greece, Kosovo, Russia, and Turkey as the total sample in order to understand the grand pattern. The other aim was to examine the same moderating role of aggressive driving for each country separately. It was hypothesized that the combination of self-reported of aggressive driving behaviors committed by the driver himself/herself and perceiving aggressive acts of other drivers against them associates with more errors and violations for each country and the total sample. On the other hand, this combination was expected to associate with less positive driver behaviors. Surveys were completed by 743 participants from five countries (i.e., Estonia, Greece, Kosovo, Russia, and Turkey). The Driver Anger Indicators Scale (DAIS) and the short version of the Driver Behavior Questionnaire (DBQ) with items of Positive Driver Behavior Scale were used as measurement tools. Moderation analyses were conducted for the total sample and each country separately. The results of the moderation analyses indicated that there was a moderating role of perceiving other drivers as engaging in aggressive behaviors on the relationship between aggressive behaviors of the driver himself/herself and their errors or violations in the total sample and every country except for Russia. However, the significant interaction between aggressive behaviors committed by the driver himself/herself and other drivers' aggressive acts in traffic was related to more positive driver behaviors for Kosovar drivers and less positive driver behaviors for Russian drivers and the total sample. It could be discussed that the way of understanding aggressive behaviors for self and other related to aberrant and positive driver behaviors in traffic may be important to manage aggression for individual level and country level.