The Influence of Music on Mild Driver Aggression

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The Influence of Music on Driver Stress

Mild driver aggression has been defined as any intentionally harmful action within the

driving context, including horn honking, swearing, and using hand gestures (Hauber, 1980;

Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 1999). Compared to more extreme acts of roadway violence (e.g.

fighting, chasing, and shooting) mild driver aggression is a fairly common response to

frustration, irritation, and hassles (Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 2001b). Recent research has found

that traffic congestion can be a powerful precursor to roadway aggression, largely due to

increased stress, arousal, and time urgency (Shinar, 1998; Gulian, Matthews, Glendon, Davies, &

Debney, 1989b; Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 1999). As traffic congestion increases, other drivers

are viewed as an obstacle to reaching a destination in a desired time frame, leading to stress

induced anger and frustration (Shinar, 1989; Stokols, Novaco, Stokols, & Campbell, 1978).

Music has been found to reduce stress, anger, agitation, and arousal due, in part, to

distraction (McCaffery, 1990; Wiesenthal, Hennessy, & Totten, 2000b; Wostratzky, Braun, &

Roth, 1988). According to Hoyos (1988), as the number of demands for attention increase, the

amount of resources available to any single source is decreased. Music acts as a distracter in that

it assumes a portion of cognitive or attentional resources that might otherwise be directed toward

a negative or demanding stimulus (Baron, 1986). As attention to music increases, cognitive

resources are diverted from negative stimuli, thus reducing negative affect and behavior. Within

the driving environment, frustration and provocation from other drivers represent common

negative events that have been found to increase the likelihood of mild aggression (McGarva &

Steiner, 2001). By redirecting attention from such conditions, music should consequently

minimize the motivation, justification, and objective behind mild driver aggression.

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Music may also influence negative behavior through relaxation (Kroener, Diergarten,

Diergarten, & Seeger, 1988; Stratton, 1992). Under demanding or undesirable conditions, heart

rate, blood pressure, general arousal and negative affect have been found to increase (Everly,

1989; Novaco Stokols, Campbell & Stokols, 1979). These in turn have been linked to increased

aggressive behaviors in a variety of settings, such as crowding (Worchel & Teddlie, 1976),

excessive noise (Donnerstein & Wilson, 1976), exercise (Zillmann, Katcher, & Milavsky, 1972),

and traffic congestion (Hennessy, 2000). However, music has been found to reduce both

physiological and psychological stress and arousal (Hammer, 1996; Parente, 1989; Takeshi &

Nakamura, 1991), particularly when it is preferred or self selected musical varieties (Allen &

Blascovich, 1994; Stratton & Zalanowski, 1984). The ability of music to reduce these processes

in the driving environment should also lead to decreased driver aggression.

Arguably, the strongest evidence of a link between music and aggression has emerged

from the field of music therapy. Music has been consistently found to reduce agitation, anger,

negative thoughts, and aggression (Bright, 1986; Montello & Coons, 1998). Nonetheless, this

effect has been demonstrated most prominently in clinical and elderly samples with behavioral or

cognitive disorders (e.g. Gardiner, Furois, Tansley, & Morgan, 2000; Montello & Coons, 1998).

Currently it is not clear if this influence is directly generalizable to every day situations, such as

vehicular driving. Contrary evidence has begun to suggest that aggressive lyrics and symbols in

rock, heavy metal and rap music may actually increase anger and aggressive tendencies

(Barongan & Hall, 1995). This research has typically utilized overtly aggressive lyrics that are

not the norm across the majority of musical genres. Further, they have relied heavily on

laboratory based manipulations which lack contextual elements that can impact aggression in

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applied settings, such as personal interactions and aggressive cues (Berkowitz, 1993). In order to

understand the potential impact of music on driver aggression, situational realism is important.

According to Hennessy & Wiesenthal (1999), roadway aggression is dependent on the

interaction of the driver with their social and physical environment. While previous methods

have been used to collect driver responses immediately following a commute, such as tape

recorders (Underwood, Chapman, Wright, & Crundall, 1999) and diaries (Gulian, Glendon,

Matthews, Davies, & Debney, 1990), present study was designed as a more direct examination of

the influence of self selected music on the frequency of mild driver aggression in actual low and

high traffic congestion conditions. It is predicted that mild driver aggression will be influenced

by the interaction of congestion level X music. Specifically, drivers in low congestion

conditions will exhibit elevated driver aggression when not listening to music.

Method

Participants

The present study will include 20 female and 20 male volunteers that commute daily to

work in Buffalo New York. The ages will range from 20 – 65. They must commute at least 20

minutes daily, be the primary driver during their commute, and possess a minimum of 3 years

driving experience.

Materials

A Nokia cellular telephone with hands free and voice activated dialing capabilities will

be used to conduct driving interviews. Driver aggression will be measured using the State Driver

Aggression Questionnaire (SDAQ - Hennessy & Wiesenthal, 1997, 1999). This tool was

developed to measure the frequency of mild aggressive behaviors in actual driving situations and

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was designed to be administered verbally. Responses are placed on a Likert scale ranging from

0=“not at all” to 100=“very frequently”, indicating how frequently each behavior is used in the

specific driving situations during the previous five minutes. Items include horn honking out of

frustration, flashing high beams out of frustration, swearing/yelling at other drivers, purposely

tailgating, and using obscene gestures. An aggregate mild driver aggression score will then be

calculated as the mean response to the five individual items separately in low and high

congestion. Higher scores indicate a greater use of mild aggressive driving behaviors in that

condition. It has been found to have high internal reliability (alpha = .92; Hennessy, 2000).

Procedure

Instructions regarding the experimental procedure and cellular telephone operation will

be given during the initial appointment. Participants will then provide information regarding

their regular travel route along Highway 401, since all measures will be administered during

their usual daily commute. For each participant, two areas along their regular commuting route

will be chosen: one that is typically lowest and one that is typically highest in traffic congestion.

These will represent the two areas in which participants will later initiate cellular telephone calls

to the experimenter to complete the questionnaire. Both the low and high congestion telephone

interviews will be scheduled during a single journey.

Drivers will be randomly assigned to either a “music” or “non-music” group, with a

stipulation of equal gender representation in each group. The music group will be instructed to

select a cassette tape or compact disc (no radio will be allowed) of their favorite music to play

during their entire trip. The non-music group will be instructed specifically not to listen to music

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(or talk radio) during their entire journey. All participants will be alone in their automobiles for

the duration of their journey.

All participants will then drive their normal commuting route. Upon approaching their

first target area (which will be designated during the initial meeting with the experimenters), they

will telephone the researcher, utilizing the voice activated feature. Once a successful telephone

contact is made the SDAQ will be administered verbally. Upon completion of the first telephone

interview, the telephone call will be terminated and the participants will continue driving until

their second target area is reached. At that time a second call will be made, the SDAQ will be

completed verbally again, and the telephone call will be terminated. All measures will be

obtained on weekdays to maintain consistency in congestion levels and no measurements will be

collected during rain or snow in order to avoid confounding by poor weather.

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