Men love fast driving, and women don’t know how to park. This cliché is as old as the world, and for a long time has been the subject of sexist jokes. As a number of other hackneyed cliches associated with motor vehicles, which, judging by the results of serious research, have nothing to do with reality.
We study the psychology of the attitudes towards driving, cars, and the behavior of men and women on the road. Let’s try to identify some patterns and features.
Road behavior
As many years of scientific and psychological research show, a woman can normally drive transport until some unforeseen circumstances arise. Psychologists explain it this way: a man in any situation believes in himself more. It is men who instantly begin to calculate algorithms for getting out of a non-standard situation. But precisely because of self-confidence, sometimes unreasonable, it is men who are much more likely to get into serious accidents.
A woman in the same conditions believes in certain Laws, which should work in her favor as if by themselves – a stalled engine will start anyway, and theoretically, gasoline cannot run out halfway. Therefore, road accidents involving women are usually milder, because they are more careful and disciplined on the road, less likely to violate traffic rules.
Statistically, women are much less likely than men to drive drunk and do not forget to use seat belts.
But this difference between the driving behavior of men and women is largely exaggerated. If a car behaves in a standard way on the road, we are unlikely to pay attention to it and try to understand who is driving there – a woman or a man. We begin to look closely at the driver only if we notice the non-standard behavior of the car.
Motor skills
Driving is a set of activities that are based on two skill groups: operating controls and assessing and reducing road risks. Actions with the controls are inherently the so-called gross motor skills, which are better developed in men. Here you can add a greater speed of reaction and movement.
At the same time, women, in general, have an advantage in the development of fine motor skills, which include, for example, knitting, sewing, operating with instruments under a microscope, and the like. In other words, it is easier for men to work with the pedals, steering wheel, and gear lever clearly and confidently, which is evident not only from the actions of the driver but also from the nature of the car’s movement.
Thanks to the information received from the telemetry devices of cars, it turns out that the main cause of numerous accidents among female drivers is non-observance of the rules for rebuilding and maneuvering, and among male drivers – violation of the speed limit.
According to psychologists, women are more anxious, unsure of themselves, so they do not take risks and do not compete on the road.
Speed
Men love fast driving. And when choosing a new car, such parameters as a large amount of horsepower are important for them. In other words, the sportier and faster the car is, the better. Needless to say, brands like Porsche and Jaguar are at the top of the men’s list of preferences. Even Lamborghini rental in Dubai will be the brightest experience and best impression for any man while traveling!
Women supposedly drive slowly. On the one hand, when driving a car, women really do not press the gas as intensively as men. But they don’t drive slowly either. It’s just that most women try to follow the rules of the road exactly and do not accelerate unnecessarily on highways – so as not to put themselves or others at risk.
Specialists explain this by the fact that caution and prudence are in the blood of the fair sex: since ancient times, a woman is intended to protect not only herself but also her children from danger.
Social factors
The difference in driving behavior between men and women, which does exist, is due to social factors, not genes or brain structure. From early childhood, girls and boys are brought up in different ways: the profession of a chauffeur is considered male, cars are divided into male (sports car, SUV) and female (hatchback), and so on.
A woman cannot change candles, not because her brain is unable to figure out how to carry out this procedure, but because she cannot come to a meeting with dirty hands, broken nails, and engine oil stains on her shirt. This is a tough requirement of society, to which women are forced to obey, psychologists explain.
And the teenage girl’s hobby for auto mechanics is unlikely to be encouraged by parents and society as a whole. So while the boys disassemble engines or extract lead from batteries, laying the foundation for their future success in emergency car repairs, girls, in a simplified way, play with dolls and learn to bake pies.
Conclusion
Women and men drive differently, so it makes no sense to compare their driving styles. This is the same as comparing soft and white, black and fluffy. Therefore, here we can only talk about the peculiarities of driving and the attitude to it.
Then any comparisons of men and women behind the wheel will sink into oblivion only when access to the steering wheel disappears as a class and type of activity. Cars with autopilot are already driving through city streets, parking themselves, reading road markings, signs, traffic lights, etc. And they don’t care at all who is driving.
