Causes
How are emotions caused in traffic?
Emotions occur in traffic through:
- personal characteristics (some people just get more angry than others);
- events that took place before traffic participation;
- thoughts during traffic participation;
- the traffic situation itself.
Traffic situations do not cause emotions more frequently than situations outside traffic. However, people are sooner inclined to react to the emotion (flashing lights, gestures). This is probably because one feels reasonably anonymous in traffic.
Motorists get angry quickest if something negative has happened for which one can blame somebody else. The strongest positive emotions occur if something positive happens that one can not blame somebody else for.