THE ROLE OF DENIAL OF RISK IN THE EXPLANATION OF RISKY DRIVING BEHAVIOR: VARIATION BY KEY DEMOGRAPHIC GROUPS

摘要

The role of poor assessment of risk by those who undertake risky driving behavior is a key issue in theliterature, and variation in faulty risk assessment by key demographic groups is a major concern. Faultyjudgments about the downside aspects of risky driving behaviors, including denial of danger and evendenial of negative experience in being arrested, are more prevalent for the young when compared with theold, and for males when compared with females. More recently, significant differences in the role ofdenial of risk and consequence have been noted between urban and rural populations; early work suggeststhat Location is a factor in the explanation of differences in the role of denial of risk for manydemographic groups. A new multi-group structural equation model has been developed to explore thesequestions. Of the demographics tested, significant importance was found for Gender, Location andIncome, with particularly interesting interactions noted between Gender and Location. Examples of suchinteractions include the conclusions that the Standardized Total Effect on Risky Driving Behavior is:higher for females than males in Denial of Risk; higher for rural than urban residents in Denial of Risk;higher for urban than rural residents in the trait Excitement Seeking; higher for rural than urban residentsin the trait Altruism/Confidence; and higher for females than males in Attitude towards Speeding.Understanding these differences by demographic group could aid in the creation of targeted interventionstrategies.