Psychophysiological, subjective and behavioral differences between high and low anger drivers in a simulation task

- High anger drivers are compared with low anger drivers through a simulation task.
- High anger drivers showed higher heart rate and muscle tension.
- High anger drivers drove faster and had more accidents than low anger drivers.
- High anger drivers scored higher than low anger drivers in state anger.
- High anger drivers scored lower at perceived respect of traffic rules and in attention paid.

Anger is one of the important human factors in the prediction of road accidents. The aim of this research was to analyze the psychophysiological, subjective and behavioral differences between a high-anger driver group (n = 15) and a low-anger driver group (n = 23) in a driving simulation task. The results showed that high-anger drivers drove in general faster than low-anger drivers (d = 0.83), had more accidents (r = .41), a higher physiological arousal according to heart rate (η2 = .11-.18) and electromyography (η2 = .10-.11) in several driving situations. It was also shown that they scored higher in state anger immediately after the simulation task (d = 0.82) and lower at perceived respect of the traffic rules (d = −0.76), as well as displaying lower rates of attention during the simulation task (d = −0.80). In the second part, correlations among the variables were analyzed. State anger was the only variable that was significantly associated with the three behavioral variables: mean speed (r = .45), infractions (r = .31) and number of crashes during the task (r = .46). Clinical and road safety implications of these results are discussed.