
Why do so many bad drivers have luxury cars? A new study blames disagreeable men - wisemang
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/01/30/why-do-so-many-bad-drivers-have-luxury-cars-a-new-study-blames-disagreeable-men.html
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croissants
The actual abstract [1] is much more informative:

> In a representative sample of Finnish car owners (N = 1892) we connected the
> Five‐Factor Model personality dimensions to driving a high‐status car.
> Regardless of whether income was included in the logistic model,
> disagreeable men and conscientious people in general were particularly
> likely to drive high‐status cars. The results regarding agreeableness are
> consistent with prior work that has argued for the role of narcissism in
> status consumption. Regarding conscientiousness, the results can be
> interpreted from the perspective of self‐congruity theory, according to
> which consumers purchase brands that best reflect their actual or ideal
> personalities. An important implication is that the association between
> driving a high‐status car and unethical driving behaviour may not, as is
> commonly argued, be due to the corruptive effects of wealth. Rather, certain
> personality traits, such as low agreeableness, may be associated with both
> unethical driving behaviour and with driving a high‐status car.

There is also this...interesting sentence in the paper's discussion section:

> The present study was motivated by the authors' everyday experience of most
> traffic violations being committed by male drivers of high‐status cars.

[1]
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31797376](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31797376)

~~~
beerandt
>> The present study was motivated by the authors' everyday experience of most
traffic violations being committed by male drivers of high‐status cars.

------
JackFr
> The link between conscientious personality traits and interest in high-
> status cars was found among both men and women. In contrast, the connection
> between self-centred personality traits and high-status cars was only found
> among men, not women. Lönnqvist has no clear answer as to why this is the
> case.

Here's an idea -- because it's all p-hacked nonsense.

The abstract leaves out 1) how this population of 1892 was acquired. 2) what
the definition of a high status car is -- is it equivalent to the cost or is
it an arbitrary split on make/model? 3) the actual statistical tests and their
results. While we see N at 1892, what were the sub-populations. Presumably
N[high_status] is low relative to N, which would go along way to explaining
the high 'conscientious' result -- that they are both meaningless statistical
artifacts.

> The present study was motivated by the authors' everyday experience of most
> traffic violations being committed by male drivers of high‐status cars.

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself and you are the easiest
person to fool. - Richard Feynman

This is bad work.

------
strict9
Finally, a study to explain something most people know-- drivers of BMWs,
SUVs, and Teslas are usually more aggressive to others on the road.

This bad and unsafe behavior by these drivers is usually more pronounced
toward a pedestrian or cyclist.

~~~
anchpop
> BMWs, SUVs, and Teslas are usually more aggressive to others on the road

I've never heard this stereotype of Tesla drivers. I normally associate
aggressive driving (and not signalling) with really big, high above the ground
cars and trucks.

~~~
forgottenpass
>I've never heard this stereotype of Tesla drivers.

Really? Tesla drivers are like 2% tech enthusiasts and 90% the kind of people
seeking the latest and greatest flashy car.

~~~
nickthegreek
In Ohio I find Tesla's to be some of the slowest drivers. I am constantly on
their ass on the on ramps. It infuriates me cause I know they could accelerate
faster than everyone else around them.

~~~
lostlogin
What sort of car do you drive?

~~~
bluGill
The cheapest worn out beater I could find. I can get up to freeway speed, but
I need my foot all the way to the floor for the entire on ramp. When sports
cars (always sports cars) with great acceleration don't accelerate until the
very end they make it so I'm the one trying to merge at 30 mph (50km/h).

My car isn't my status symbol. My bank account is enough that I don't worry
about downturns too much and I'll be able to retire to a nice life in the
future (assuming civilization doesn't collapse)

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paulgb
I only read the Star piece, not the study, but I'm surprised there's no
mention of the theory that men who can afford nice cars are less likely to
find a ticket economically meaningful. (This doesn't explain the gender gap, I
admit)

~~~
ahoy
I imagine wage disparity b/t men and women is part of it: I'd bet more men
drive luxury cars than women b/c more men than women are paid enough to afford
them.

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pid_0
Why just men though? Anyone can be disagreeable and plenty of people who drive
nice cars are not men. Can't tell you how many non-male tesla and BMW drivers
cut me off without a signal.

------
minikites
Rich people are more likely to literally take candy from a baby:
[https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-
klein/post/study-r...](https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-
klein/post/study-rich-more-likely-to-take-candy-from-
babies/2011/08/25/gIQAXE0beR_blog.html)

Being rich is directly correlated with a loss of empathy, so this study is no
surprise.

------
seattle_spring
Anecdote incoming: In South Seattle, it definitely isn't just "white men in
fancy cars" that are doing the most dangerous of driving.

My guess is that the higher the loan value is when compared to the driver's
income, the worse the driver will be. Ex: $20k/yr guy driving $45k loan V8
Mustang would be a much worse driver than $100k/yr guy who owns his BMW
outright.

Side-note: I do not drive a luxury car, for those about to presume.

------
kleer001
I'd buy that.

Disagreeable people tend to get what they want more often. The most
disagreeable people tend to be men.

Also luxury car drivers tend to be worse drivers just by driving those cars
alone.

[https://clark.com/cars/study-expensive-cars-road-
manners/](https://clark.com/cars/study-expensive-cars-road-manners/)

~~~
kazinator
Disagreeable people get what they want in the short term, but they hamper
themselves in the long run.

When you're disagreeable, people will tend give you what you want to get you
out of their hair, but in parallel to that, their minds begin forming ideas
about how to avoid or minimize future interactions with you.

And that's going to have the effect of you not getting what you want from
_those_ people any more; you will have find new people to get what you want.

People also talk: if you're disagreeable to someone, that will not remain a
secret that is just between you and then. They will likely be sharing their
experience with others, which will warn those others about interacting with
you.

So, if we take that into account, being disagreeable no longer seems like a
clear-cut optimization of getting what you want as a long-term strategy.

Thus, although the "squeaky wheel gets a greasing", we also have it that "you
catch more flies with honey".

~~~
piptastic
I don't think this is necessarily true. I've seen plenty of disagreeable
people making it much further than their "nicer" counterparts over a longer
period of time. In business, politics, etc.

~~~
swat535
That's because they usually have money, connections and resources. A homeless
disagreeable person isn't going anywhere in life. Disagreeable only works when
you have leverage.

------
gnicholas
...in Finland. It would be interesting to know how car-buying behaviors (and
brand popularity) differ across countries and cultures. Might be the same all
over the world, or it could be very different. But why wait to find out, when
you can put up an overbroad headline and get lots of clicks now?

------
NoblePublius
It’s not news that disagreeableness correlates with success and income.

------
aphistic
I guess disagreeable is one way to say "entitled".

------
_bxg1
One benefit of driving a piece of junk is that when one of these people is
riding your bumper, you can tap your brakes without fear because they have
much more to lose than you do.

~~~
vsareto
Naturally if they have a dashcam (which they can afford to), they then have
evidence you're brake checking them

~~~
stewartm
In the UK in general, you run into the back of someone, it is your fault in
the eyes of the insurers. If you hit someone due to them brake checking, you
were driving too close.

~~~
_bxg1
This is my internal logic too. Although upon some quick Googling I was
surprised to find that in the U.S. it's a legal gray-area which varies from
state to state.

------
rhacker
> less empathy, they are more disagreeable, and they are more willing to fight

In other words, it's a period of high job growth. I've noticed this in my dad
and many men - when they have a job, they are like this. Women have it too,
but there is less ego driving the entirety of their personality.

~~~
bryanrasmussen
maybe it's a time of high job stress, I know when I'm stressed or going
through a miserable time (and I mean exceptionally stressing, exceptionally
miserable) I have less empathy - especially for anyone making time even a tiny
bit less easy than it could be because I am already going through a lot - I am
less agreeable because I am miserable tired and pissed off about the stuff I'm
going through, and I want to punch the first person who gets in my face.

------
totalZero
As a society, we should stop whining about competitive people and learn how to
either (a) deal with them or (b) beat them fair and square.

~~~
sidlls
One way to “deal with them” is harsh penalties for their bad behavior.

~~~
totalZero
You can't harshly penalize people for simply being disagreeable, and we
already have traffic laws.

Many academic papers have been written on correlations between old age and bad
driving. Yet when The Star writes about those papers, it chooses to blame the
"transportation gap."

[https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/10/24/transportation-g...](https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2016/10/24/transportation-
gaps-keep-seniors-driving-too-long-study.html)

The root article of this thread is just a bunch of virtue signaling nonsense
that falls under the umbrella of a cultural attack on men.

