PAPER #18 - Personality traits as predictors of aggressive violations on the road. Driving experience as a moderator.

Several studies have shown that aggressive violations, which contain an interpersonally aggressive component, are linked to an increases in the risk of crash involvement. Personality traits, conceptualized as consistent patterns of cognitions, emotions and behavior, can predispose a person to a high level of aggressive behavior in traffic. The present study attempts to understand which personality factors are the best predictors of aggressive violation on the road. Previous studies also showed that driving experience could determine the level of the drivers' aggressiveness. For this reason, both personality factors and driving experience are considered in this study. We hypothesized that the relation between personality factors and aggressive violation will be moderated by driving experience. A total of 219 young drivers (51.6 % women; mean age of 22.12 years, SD = 1.85) completed measures of personality factors and aggressive violation in traffic. Demographic information about mileage, the year obtaining the driving license, gender, and age were also reported. The results emphasized the importance of honesty, emotional stability, agreeability, and conscientiousness as negative predictors of aggressive violation, while extraversion and openness did not predicted the aggressive violation. Moreover, driving experience moderated the relation between aggressive violation and two personality factors: honesty and conscientiousness. Specifically, when the level of honesty and conscientiousness is high, the participants present the lower levels of aggressive violation, whatever their driving experience. On the contrary, when the level of honesty and conscientiousness is low, the participants with a high level of driving experience report the highest level of aggressive violation. For the participants with a low level of driving experience, there are not significant differences between those with a low and those with a high level of honesty and conscientiousness. The implications of these findings for initiatives to reduce aggressive driving behavior are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]