Driven to Distraction

A recent NRMA survey found 8% of men admitted to crashing whilst distracted compared to 5% of the women, in addition 30% of males revealed they had narrowly avoided a collision in comparison to 20% of women.

I wanted to look into why this difference occurs. Is it an ingrained characteristic or a mere disregard for safety?

The scientific view:

Anthropologist, Stephen Juan says ‘in general, women multitask much better than men’, a characteristic which is ‘hard-wired in the brain’ and thus makes women more capable of driving without their full attention devoted to the road without having an accident.

The NRMA also found that when driving, the male attention is particularly diverted by the stereo whilst women are guiltier of applying make-up and talking to a friend. This is because the ‘concerns of the two genders are different, women are much more interested in their ability to be attractive at all times, even while driving, compared to men’.

‘Such differences may have to do with evolutionary biology, whilst women tend to nest and be more concerned with relationships among people, men tend to hunt/forage and be more concerned with things. Hence women gravitate towards words and men gravitate towards machines’ says Juan.

Tracing our modern day ‘distractions’ back through evolution ‘the hunter must more actively search for prey, hence looking (i.e. eyes off the road) is more common among men than women’ hence the understanding that our behaviour, not only whilst driving but in every aspect of our lives is a predisposition engrained in our genetics.

NRMA:

NRMA director Coral Taylor says ‘Motorists clearly understand which behaviours are dangerous but 75% admit taking their eyes off the road to do something other than driving’ and in doing so disregard their own safety and the safety of others on the road.

Psychologist’s point of view

Clinical Psychologist and developer of the ‘Back in the Drivers Seat’ programme, Jacqui Triffitt, proposes that reason a larger proportion of men are distracted whilst driving than women is because they are conducting business on the way to work. Trying to accomplish as much as they can whilst commuting, drivers may hold complex business discussions or text colleagues which causes them to take their focus off driving.

Triffitt suggests that not only might the figures be slightly askew as data collected is reliant on honesty, but also that the fundamental issue of distracted drivers must be diminished and any campaign launched by the NSW government should target all drivers, not only the groups highlighted by the NRMA.

‘People have the knowledge [of the dangers] yet are still willing to take the risk’ of not paying attention when behind the wheel of their vehicle. The sustained nonchalance of motorists towards these dangers will be maintained so long as ‘they can get away with it without consequence or implication’.

96% of the people surveyed recognised texting whilst driving as the most hazardous and distracting activity undertaken whilst driving, yet 1 in 5 people admitted to doing it. This is evidence that despite being able to identify what constitutes dangerous behaviour, motorists are not willing to modify their own conduct to reflect that knowledge.