I'm not an expert on road rage, by any means. But I'd point
those interested to a neat little book by sociologist Barry
Glassner called "Culture of Fear: Why Americans are Afraid
of the Wrong Things" (not to be confused with the also
interesting book by Frank Furedi, "Culture of Fear: Risk-
Taking and the Morality of Low Expectation").
Much of Glassner's book focuses on the ways in which
Americans' beliefs, fears, and policy decisions are
misguided as a result of media influence (psychological
concepts like availablility and representativeness loom
large here). That is, the "if it bleeds it leads" mentality
of the media (particularly local TV news) leads us to
believe that some crimes, accidents, diseases, etc.,
are much more common than they really are (see also
Stanovich's "How To Think Straight About Psychology").
Road rage comes up as a prime example in Glassner's
Chapter 1. According to Glassner, incidents of road rage
in this country are extremely rare (at least, insofar as road
rage is defined by highway deaths or other overtly violent
incidents). For example, Glassner cites a report that
of 250,000 people killed on U.S. roads from 1990 to
1997, only 218 (.087%) of those deaths were attributed to
angry drivers by the AAA. And, of 20 million injured motorists
during that period, less than 1 percent of those injuries
were attributed to aggressive driving. Meanwhile, the folks
at MADD can't get as much press, and they're fighting the
REAL menaces on the road.
I think that one could argue that road rage as violent
behavior may be a different animal than road rage as
increased blood pressure and discourtesy...I'll let
someone more knowledgeable make that case.
(But, given the tremendous number of TIPS messages
posted every year, and the extremely small number of
discourteous/flaming posts, perhaps there IS a parallel
here?)
-Mike
*****************************************************
Michael J. Kane
Psychology Department
Georgia State University
University Plaza
Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
phone: 404-651-0704
fax: 404-651-0753
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing
is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good,
as it is not to care how you got your money as
long as you have it."
-- E.W. Teale
