A comparative study of psychological factors influencing car crashes according to the driver's gender

Traffic events account for about 1،200،000 deaths and more than 50 million injuries annually across the world. Research shows that male drivers make up the majority of those who sustain injuries in car accidents. The present research aims to compare psychological factors affecting driving-related crashes of male and female drivers. Accordingly، the sample data is collected from 208 crash-involved drivers (18 female drivers i. e. 8. 7% and 185 male drivers i. e. 88. 9%) and 201 non-crash-involved drivers (20 female drivers i. e. 10% and 180 male drivers i. e. 89. 6%). The respondents consist of clients who have either come to an insurance company to receive their insurance payment (crash-involved drivers) or renew their car insurance (non-crash-involved drivers). The subjects are randomly selected for the following tests: accuracy، aggression، personality and reaction time. Accuracy Test is، however، used in 5 situations، 3 of which include normal situation، a double-job situation and a distraction situation. Personality Test has 4 subscales، including affective constancy، social responsibility، self-control and emotion seeking. Reaction Time Test covers three levels، including simple، selective and complex. Using independent T-test، the comparison results indicate that there is no significant difference between female crash-involved and non-crash-involved drivers، this is also true for male and female crash-involved drivers (with over 4 crashes) in terms of all the related psychological factors. In other words، there is no difference between female crash-involved and non-crash-involved drivers in such factors as accuracy، reaction time، aggression and personality. It may also be concluded that female crash-involved drivers don’t have any specific traits which distinguishes them from the non-crash-involved ones. However، the comparison between male and female non-crash-involved drivers (over a period of over 3 years) shows that there is a significant difference between the two groups regarding first and third condition of accuracy and the sub-scale of personality i. e. self-control. The comparison of other psychological factors among the two groups does not reveal any significant difference. The comparison of the means related to the 3 significant factors in male and female non-crash-involved drivers indicate that women score higher in the first and third situations. In other words، this group enjoys a greater accuracy (31. 57 and 13. 02 in women vs. 25. 35 and 22. 93 in men). However، in terms of the self-control subscale of personality questionnaire the male non-crash-involved drivers have gained higher scores (3. 056 in women vs. 3. 957 in men). In other words، male non-crash-involved drivers show more self-control in driving than female drivers.