{"id":109175319,"date":"2008-06-17T14:28:39","date_gmt":"2008-06-17T14:28:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=109175319"},"modified":"2008-06-17T14:28:39","modified_gmt":"2008-06-17T14:28:39","slug":"looking-to-avoid-aggressive-drivers-check-those-bumpers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=109175319","title":{"rendered":"Looking to Avoid Aggressive Drivers? Check Those Bumpers."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&#8211; Shankar Vedantam Washington Post Staff Writer<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nWatch out for cars with bumper stickers.<br \/>\nThat&#8217;s the surprising conclusion of a recent study by Colorado State University social psychologist William Szlemko. Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other &quot;territorial markers&quot; not only get mad when someone cuts in their lane or is slow to respond to a changed traffic light, but they are far more likely than those who do not personalize their cars to use their vehicles to express rage &#8212; by honking, tailgating and other aggressive behavior.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nHey, you clown! This ain&#8217;t funny! Aggressive driving might be responsible for up to two-thirds of all U.S. traffic accidents that involve injuries.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nThe key to the phenomenon apparently lies in the idea of territoriality. Drivers with road rage tend to think of public streets and highways as &quot;my street&quot; and &quot;my lane&quot; &#8212; in other words, they think they &quot;own the road.&quot;<br \/>\nWhy would bumper stickers predict which people are likely to view public roadways as private property?<br \/>\nSocial scientists such as Szlemko say that people carry around three kinds of territorial spaces in their heads. One is personal territory &#8212; like a home, or a bedroom. The second kind involves space that is temporarily yours &#8212; an office cubicle or a gym locker. The third kind is public territory: park benches, walking trails &#8212; and roads.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/06\/15\/AR2008061501963.html\">https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2008\/06\/15\/AR2008061501963.html<\/a>oldId.20080617142839513<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8211; Shankar Vedantam Washington Post Staff Writer &#8230; Watch out for cars with bumper stickers. That&#8217;s the surprising conclusion of a recent study by Colorado State University social psychologist William Szlemko. Drivers of cars with bumper stickers, window decals, personalized license plates and other &quot;territorial markers&quot; not only get mad when someone cuts in their &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=109175319\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Looking to Avoid Aggressive Drivers? Check Those Bumpers.&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109175319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109175319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=109175319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109175319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=109175319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=109175319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=109175319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}