Study purports to equate NASCAR viewing with aggressive driving

Aggressive driving study

 

Study purports to equate NASCAR viewing with aggressive driving

 

By Reid Spencer
Sporting News NASCAR Wire Service

 

(July 30, 2011)

 

If you believe a recent study published in “The Journal of Applied Social Psychology,” you’re most likely to drive aggressively and wreck five days after watching a televised Sprint Cup race than you are at any other time.

 

Guy D. Vitaglione’s study, titled “Driving Under the Influence (of Mass Media): A Four-Year Examination of NASCAR and West Virginia Aggressive-Driving Accidents and Injuries,” attempts to extend the well-documented influence of mass media on behavior by associating the viewing of race telecasts with a subsequent spike in wrecks caused by aggressive driving.

 

Vitaglione chose West Virginia for his research under the assumption that 1) West Virginia has more NASCAR fans per capita than any other state, and 2) because West Virginia has no Sprint Cup track, fans are more likely to watch races on television. The study tracks aggressive-driving accidents from 2003 to 2006.

 

The research found the number of aggressive-driving accidents declined on race days and hypothesized that might be attributable to race fans staying home to watch on TV. Five days after a NASCAR race, however, the number of aggressive-driving accidents and injuries spiked significantly.

 

The premise is that aggressive driving in NASCAR is portrayed as something that is rewarded with trophies and money and hence is perceived as acceptable, consciously or subconsciously, by viewers of the telecasts.

 

“Dangerous and competitive driving behaviors are not only accepted parts of the NASCAR event, but are actively reinforced,” the study says. “As already noted, risky driving is socially reinforced with fan support and cheering. It is also associated with monetary rewards, trophies, acclaim, social status, fame, and other material and nonmaterial reinforcers.

 

“The cash prize for the 2006 first-place finisher of the premier event of the racing season, the Daytona 500, was $1,505,124. Even the last-place finisher of that race was awarded more than $250,000.”

 

What the study doesn’t provide is an adequate explanation of the five-day time lag between the viewing of a race and the increase in aggressive-driving accidents. The suggestion is that there is an “incubation period,” though the study admits that “the precise mechanism underlying it is unclear.”

 

Nor did the researchers interview a sampling of those involved in aggressive-driving accidents to determine whether they had actually watched a Sprint Cup race five days earlier.

 

It might also be worth noting that, since most NASCAR races during the time period covered took place on Sundays, the spike in accidents occurred primarily on Fridays, when motorists are most likely to be driving longer distances en masse to weekend destinations -- perhaps to a racetrack in another state.