A very American road rampage shooting crisis

The United States is going through a Large number of road rage incidents. And the list potential provocation virtually endless – following each other, passing unauthorized people, honking, tailgating drivers, shouting, flashing high lights or making obscene gestures. But too often, these incidents don’t end with a small picture. This week, a man in New Jersey arrested after allegedly operating more than one woman several times in a suspicious incident that occurred on the street. And it gets worse: In 2021, 45 people are injured and 11 people are killed in angry street shootings – in Dallas alone. Nationally, last year was one of the worst on record for deadly outbreaks like these.

Have there is no element here, but we know psychology plays an important role. More and more motorists engage in aggressive actions.”contemplation of anger“, the more upset they become, and the more they engage in dangerous driving behaviors. This can cause them to become and stay angry during and after what they perceive as driving provocations, as well as causing them to have more intense thoughts about how get even.

This mentality increases when an individual is already prone to anger. There are many studies that show that people with high and long-term anger attitudes have tendency to view other people’s bad driving behavior as deliberate aggressive, see another driver as a malicious perpetrator. Expressions of anger on the street are not usually the first time these people have committed an act of aggression. The antagonist can see the roads as their territory and lack of ability to control their temper. They also tend to be male. Apparently, driving under the influence of alcohol or marijuana increase aggressive driving rate.

Over the past few decades, Brad Bushman, a social psychologist and professor at Ohio State University, has studied the causes, consequences, and solutions to human aggression. Bachman told me he believes there are two factors involved in the rise of road rage. The first is disappointment. In 1939, a group of Yale scholars proposed the frustration-aggression hypothesis. “Frustration is defined as stopping goal-directed behavior. The pandemic has stopped many people’s goals.”

The second factor is also related to the pandemic, but in a different way. Had one Gun sales soar in the past few years. “While guns are not directly aggressive, they greatly increase the likelihood that any situation involving conflict will result in death,” Bushman notes. This is meaningful. We all have an emergency system built in. This system may have been affected by the isolation related to the pandemic, the misinformation that has spread on social media, and our nationwide access to lethal weapons.

I also talked to Tara Galovski, one of the co-authors of the book “Road Rage: Assessing and Treating Angry, Aggressive Drivers.” She told me that there are often warning signs with this type of behavior. But being in a car can make aggression worse. “Unfortunately, bad behavior can increase in driving situations because of its anonymity (drivers don’t easily recognize or know other drivers) and because the vehicle provides a quick getaway. quickly,” she said. This makes accountability even harder.

“Understanding why someone is driving aggressively can help determine how to change their behavior,” explains Galovski, noting that it is possible to correct those aggressive or dangerous thoughts. . Self-aware angry drivers can try things like plan ahead and take more time to get to their destination, or improve their driving experience by listening to an audiobook or taking a route. sightseeing. The key is to keep your stress levels low and practice relaxation tips like taking deep breaths or counting to 10 – and if it doesn’t work, stop.

In the long run, it’s important to notice your thoughts and understand how they contribute to your anger and angry behavior, says Galovski. “If someone thinks that all drivers are ‘idiots’, for example, that person is likely to notice any examples of driving that support this thinking. One simple intervention is that people deliberately look for examples that contradict this negative and false belief. A more accurate mindset is that most people are good drivers, some people make mistakes sometimes, and there are also a few bad drivers. ”

To be fair to the United States, road rage is a serious public health problem worldwide, including in Australia, Denmark, France, China and India. But what is peculiar to the United States – and particularly dangerous – is a phenomenon some researchers call weapon on effect wheel, which describes how drivers act and react when they carry a gun in their vehicle. The psychology behind this effect was first demonstrated in a 1967 research, which found that students placed in rooms with guns acted more aggressively. What this study tells us is that stimuli associated with aggressive behavior can trigger a violent response in people who are already predisposed to act destructively. This study The findings have been replicated many times in the years since.

Road rage is both an individual and collective problem. On the one hand, we need a public health approach to prevent these drivers from endangering the lives of others and to raise awareness about red flag behavior. Aggressive drivers need to learn that they don’t “own the roads, ”And we can help them manage their thoughts, feelings, and actions more appropriately. But we may also need increased punishment for road tantrums as well as engaging in public education to inform all motorists of the risks. In a civilized society, the fact that hundreds of people every year are shot as stalkers is a national outrage. However, here we are.

at Blogtuan.info – Source: nbcnews.com – Read the original article here