Jugements comparatifs et absolus de deux risques routiers contexualisés et raisons invoquées quant à ces jugements

Comparative optimism (CO) had been observed in North American and European countries. However, the level of risk to be assessed is general or specific without being situated in a particular context for the most part. This article presents an experiment based on two road traffic related risks described as a script. We registered the assessment of these two risks by 219 young drivers (mean age = 21 years) using three different types of measures: direct measures (comparison of the self to others using a single item), indirect measures (risk assessment by mean of two items, for the self then for others, or for others then for the self) and absolute measures (risk assessment for the self only or for others only). In each of these experimental conditions, half of the participants were asked to justify his risk judgments and half were not. Results showed that in the condition of a direct measure, the drivers did not exhibit CO (comparative optimism), no matter whether they were asked to give justifications or not. When risk judgments were registered with indirect measures, we observed CO whatever the order of comparison with the target (self vs others or others vs self) when participants were asked to give justifications for their judgments; but Co was only observed for the comparison order others versus the self when participants were not asked to give justifications for their judgments. When judgments were registered with absolute measures, we observed an absolute pessimism (AP) either for the self or others, no matter whether the participants gave justifications or not. Regarding the content of the justifications given for risk judgments, they were mostly related to the lack of control of the car. Moreover, the participants distinguished themselves from others by linking risk judgments for the self to the observance of road safety rules and risk judgments for others to the violation of road safety rules or to a lack of car control. However they didn't differentiate themselves from others regarding risk judgments related to the other types of justifications. Possible implementations of the results are outlined.