The Psychology Behind the Wheel

Many of us probably think of dangerous driving habits as just that, habits that we start…just because. But really, there are so many more mental processes happening behind the scenes of our minds, that drive us to pick up the phone when we hear a buzz, or to make us believe that we are 99 percent sober, even when we really aren’t.

The brain has a process called Selective Attention. This is the process of directing our attention to “relevant” stimuli, while ignoring what our brain deems as irrelevant stimuli. Because we are talking about driving, the phrase relevant stimuli is probably planting an image of a pedestrian running into the sidewalk, right in front of the car. Obviously this is relevant to the driver, making it “relevant” stimuli, right? Wrong. Relevant stimuli is subjected to what we think is relevant in the moment. Let’s use an example to get a clearer picture of what is going on with selective attention in the mind.

Jane is driving from school back to her house. She knows the route like the back of her-well, you get the picture. Jane knows there’s a stop light, a roundabout, and a speed limit reduction a few minutes before her house. So, she’s driving home, and hears a ding from her purse. Her brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter that induces good feelings, along reward pathways in her brain. She keeps her eyes on the road, and feels around the back seat for her purse. After a few seconds of not feeling it, she turns around, just for a second, to find it. Jane grabs her purse, and slams on the brakes so as to avoid hitting the car ahead that has just stopped at a red light. When Jane’s adrenaline levels go down, after almost hitting the car, she opens her purse and finds her phone. Jane sees it’s the boy she’s been talking to, and feels she has to answer him. The light turns green. Dopamine is flowing like a dam that has just been opened, but Jane’s smart, so she looks up at the road every couple of seconds to make sure she is safe. Jane looks down at her phone, looks back up, and before she can process that a car is stopped at another red light, she rear ends the car up ahead.

So what was the relevant stimulus in this scenario? While we would say it’s the car stopped at the roundabout, the relevant stimulus for Jane was the message on her phone. This caused her to miss the surrounding cars slowing down, the car ahead of her slowing down, brake lights, and most apparent, the red stop light.

In this scenario, not only was selective attention involved, but so was dopamine, adrenaline, and visual interruption. All of these are processes the brain makes of its own accord. Just as an avalanche, once they gain momentum in your brain, they’re hard to stop. Because we know this, we must work hard to stop these avalanches from starting. Although your brain releases dopamine just with the sound of a notification, it is nothing compared to the amount of dopamine released after looking at the notification. Put your phone on silent, and toss it in the glove box so you can’t hear the vibrations, decreasing the temptation exponentially. To make sure your brain is selecting the truly relevant stimuli, leave distractions until later. After going through a drive thru, take a few minutes in the parking lot to eat your snack. Make sure your Google Maps is on and ready to go. Text your mom you’re on your way home before getting in the car.

Maybe you feel that these couple of tips are small and insignificant. Or maybe you’re thinking “if it ain’t broke, dont fix it”; you’ve never been in a car crash, what’s the point. But it’s not about if you’ve been in a car crash, or if you’ve taken a life from behind the wheel. It’s that you could, at any time. So be smart, be safe, and feel the weight of life and death when you get behind the wheel.