Aggressive Behaviour in Road Traffic – Findings from Austria

AbstractThe presented paper deals with the phenomenon of aggression in road traffic among Austrian car drivers. The conducted study is based upon the frustration-aggression hypothesis as a theoretical framework and employs a combination of established measurement tools and a mixed design of qualitative and quantitative methods. A telephone survey (n=1,500 car drivers) and focus groups including also pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists were carried out in 2014. Survey data was aggregated to a traffic related aggression score to build groups of high, medium and low aggression. Results indicate a clear relation between high aggression scores and accidents in the past three years. All surveyed aberrant driving behaviours are claimed to occur more often with others than committed by the respondents. Furthermore, observed aggressive behaviours of others is related to high emotional constraint and often serves as justification of one's own aggression in traffic. The concept of the ‘fundamental attribution error’ for observed behaviours can serve as a starting point to design countermeasures