A Study on the Relationship Between Personality and Driving Styles

Abstract

Objective: Research on driving behavior and personality traits is a key factor in the development of driver-oriented safety interventions. However, research is fragmented and a multidimensional perspective is lacking. The primary aim of this study is to assess the multiple relationships between driving styles and personality traits using the alternative 5-factor model. A secondary goal is to determine whether these relationships vary by gender and age.

Methods: Data were collected from a sample of 908 Argentine drivers. Driving styles were assessed using the Multidimensional Driving Style Inventory. Personality was assessed with the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ-50-CC; Aluja et al. 2006) questionnaire.

Results: Different patterns of personality are associated with different driving styles. These relationships appear to be robust with respect to gender and age; however, in some cases these variables did influence the observed relationships.

Conclusion: The results provide researchers with a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships between personality traits and driving styles. Practical prevention measures are discussed.

Keywords:

• driving style
• personality
• gender
• age
• multidimensional

Acknowledgments

This research was supported by a contribution from the World Bank's Global Road Safety Facility and the Global Forum for Health Research through their grant facility to the Road Traffic Injuries Research Network (Agreement Nos. RTIRNWB-004d and RTIRNWB-005d). It also recived partial support from the Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata and Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (Argentina). We express our gratitude to these institutions for their support.

Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of Traffic Injury Prevention to view the supplemental file.