Be careful making your way out of the parking lot Sunday. A new study suggests our penchant for bumper stickers indicates we drive aggressively.
Watch out for cars with bumper stickers.
That’s the surprising conclusion of a recent study by Colorado State University social psychologist William Szlemko. Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other “territorial markers” not only get mad when someone cuts in their lane or is slow to respond to a changed traffic light, but they are far more likely than those who do not personalize their cars to use their vehicles to express rage — by honking, tailgating and other aggressive behavior, he said.
It does not seem to matter whether the messages on the stickers are about peace and love — “Visualize World Peace” — or angry and in your face — “My Kid Beat Up Your Honor Student.”
I particularly like the part about territorial behavior not depending on the message of the bumper sticker….
Isn’t there a difference between bumper stickers that spout opinions and stickers that signal identity? My bumper stickers tell people I’m a UU, I’m gay, and I’m a cyclist. I see them creating community not defending territory. Knowing I have a UU license plate frame has many times kept me on my best behavior because I don’t want to reflect badly on the larger community.
i’m going to have to try and get a hold of this study. it actually makes some intuitive sense. a strong need to announce one’s identity to the whole world, even people we don’t know and who we will in all likelihood never meet, could very well correlate we a tendency to be fiercely territorial.
correlations in psychological studies rarely explain more than 15% of the variation in a given population studied, so there would be ample room for rev. ricky’s explanation of why he/she uses bumper stickers.
I friend of my wife’s used this psychology back in the 80s to great success in crazy Boston traffic. His dreadful vehicle featured the sticker “Campus Crusade for Cthulhu” and other drivers reading this stayed at an unusually careful distance.