Study: Bumper Stickers May Mean Road Rage!

Bumper stickers on another automobile may predict road rage, find the researchers at the Colorado State University. So if you don't want to get into trouble you might wanna watch out for those harmless looking bumper stickers.

Apparently, the message on the sticker doesn't matter, so even if the message reads like “make peace, not war,” the person behind the wheel could be more prone to road rage. And this could be anything from honking, tailgating, getting angry quickly, or any other type of aggressive behavior.

Furthermore, the stickers are symbolic of “territorial markers,” that are associated with animals. The reasoning goes that since animals are territorial as it aided them to survive, and humans are animals too they display similar behaviors.

What's more intriguing is that road rage becomes more likely as the number of stickers increase. At the same time bumpers aren't the only place where people put stickers on. The rule applies whether they're placed on bumpers or any other exterior automotive accessories, hoods, panels, license plates, all are included.

Road rage is far from being uncommon. The American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety found that there were 10,037 reported incidents of aggressive driving in the US 1990 and 1996. Moreover, they also stated that this number was much less than the actual number. In yet another survey conducted on 800 drivers in Australia, by the Victorian Community Council Against Violence, 91% of the of the respondents agreed that eventhough they had experienced ‘severe road rage,’ they didn't report it. Further, 41% admitted to have comitted ‘road rage’ during the last 12 months.

The new study now brings to light a surprising new way people can avoid road rage. There are other ways too, to avoid road rage. Some of them are, not to look into the eyes of the a driver who's driving badly as it can make it look like you're expressing displeasure at the person, or staring at him. Not showing aggression yourself either by gestures, or excessive honking or by any other means.

Further, when things do get confrontational, apologizing and maintaining your cool does help. Some studies have also shown that humor also helps to pacify a mildly aggressive person, but it might backfire when one is raging aggressive.

When the automobile engine heats up, the engine's cooling system takes care of it, perhaps if the 'animals' called 'humans' too had an inbuilt cooling system, we wouldn't have had to worry about any road rage.