1. Emotion Regulation of Car Drivers
by Physical and Psychological
Paramters of Music
Rainer Höger, Sabine Wollstädter,
Sabine Eichhorst, & Laura Becker
Leuphana University of Lüneburg/Germany
2. Emotions in car driving
Anger and aggressive driving
Dimensional description of emotions
Study I: Musical preference and anger regulation
in driving
Study II: Musical tempo and anger regulation in
driving
Conclusions
Agenda
3. Emotions in car driving
0
10
20
30
40
50
Relativefrequency
Relative frequencies of emotions in traffic episodes
(adapted from Roidl et al. 2013)
4. Anger and aggressive driving
About 56% of all motor vehicle accidents in the
US included at least one aggressive action of
one of the participants (American Automobile
Association Foundation of Traffic Safety, 2009)
Idea of the study: Accident prevention by
downsizing driving anger.
Anger develops when driving goals are blocked
The consequences of anger in car driving are –
in some cases – aggressive driving acts (e.g.
blocking or chasing other drivers)
6. Anger regulation by valence of music
Valence
Anger
Music
‚surface emotion‘
latent dimension
+
-
Valence
+
-
Dimensional description
of emotions
7. Study I: Musical preference
and anger regulation
Study in the driving simulatior
8. Study I: Musical preference
and anger regulation
3 anger inducing situations
Traffic jam Slow moving car Tailgater
9. 3 musical conditions:
- without music
- with preferred music (positive valence)
Study I: Musical preference
and anger regulation
- with disliked music (negative valence)
Measurement of anger intensity by a 7-step
anger intensity scale at 6 measuring times
11. 3 Minutes free driving after each anger inducing
scene
The order of the anger inducing sences was
randomly changed between the participants
Musical preference was individually determined
Music was presented at a comfortable sound
level
43 participants with driving licence (aged
between 18 and 37) took part in the experiment
Study I: Musical preference
and anger regulation
12. Mean rated intensity of anger, type of music, and music presentation
Study I: Musical preference
and anger regulation
13. Study II: Musical tempo and
anger regulation
Anger regulation by musical tempo
Arousal
Anger
musical tempo
‚surface emotion‘
latent dimension
+
-
Arousal
slow
fast
14. Simulator study,
same anger inducing scenes as in study I
3 musical tempo conditions:
- without any music
- with low musical tempo (low arousal)
- with high musical tempo (high arousal)
Only preferred music was used
Musical tempo was determined by counting the
beats/min
low musical tempo: less than 90 beats/min
high musical tempo: more than 120 beats/min
Study II: Musical tempo and
anger regulation
15. Measurement of anger intensity by a 7-step
anger intensity scale at 6 measuring times
Same order of events as in study I
Order of scenes were randomly changed
between the participants
57 participants with driving licence (aged
between 18 and 40) took part in the experiment
Study II: Musical tempo and
anger regulation
16. Amount of anger reduction and musical tempi
Study II: Musical tempo and
anger regulation
17. Conclusions
Valence as a psychological attribute of music is
able to influence the intensity of anger:
Positive evaluated music leads to a reduction of
anger,
Negative evaluated music leads to an
enhancement of anger
Musical tempo as a physical attribute is also able
to influence the intensity of anger:
Low musical tempo leads to a downsizing of
anger whereas the effect high musical tempo is
not quite clear
18. In general it can be assumed that the latent
dimensions of emotions (valence and arousal)
can be supplied with data from different sources
Whether the musical attributes valence and
arousal influence driving behaviour via the
regulation of anger couldn‘t be observed in the
studies presented
Conclusions
19. Thank you
for your
attention!
Prof. Dr. Rainer Höger
Institut für Experimentelle
Wirtschaftspsychologie
Wilschenbrucher Weg 84
D-21335 Lüneburg/Germany
email: hoeger@leuphana.de
