Do young novice drivers overestimate their driving skills more than experienced drivers? Different methods lead to different conclusions

In this study we argue that drivers have to make an assessment of their own driving skills, in order to sufficiently adapt to their task demands in traffic. There are indications that drivers in general, but novice drivers in particular, overestimate their driving skills. However, study results differ on the subject of self-assessment of skills. The objectives of this paper are (1) to study whether novice drivers indeed overestimate their driving skills more than experienced drivers; and (2) to evaluate the influence of the method to measure self-assessment of skills (i.e. comparison to ‘average’ and ‘peer’ driver versus independent measures of own performance). The results show that the conclusion of whether novice drivers overestimate their driving skills is highly affected by the method chosen to measure self-assessment of skills. When drivers are asked to compare themselves to the average and peer driver, we can conclude that novice drivers are not as optimistic about their driving skills as has been reported in the past. They seem to recognize that they are not as skilled (yet) as the average driver. However, when comparing their self-assessment with their actual behaviour there are indications that they overestimate their driving skills.

► Two methods were used to measure how novice and experienced drivers assess their own driving skills.
► When drivers compare themselves to other drivers, novice drivers were found to be less optimistic about their driving skills than has been reported in the past.
► They seem to recognize that they are not as skilled (yet) as the average driver.
► However, when comparing their self-assessment with their actual behaviour there are indications that novice drivers do overestimate their driving skills.