Does Personality Predict Driving Performance in Middle and Older Age? An Evidence-Based Literature Review

Abstract

Overall, we found evidence for personality as a reliable predictor of driving performance among older drivers. However, 2 caveats qualify our conclusions: the research considered only a limited number of personality variables and largely consisted of less valid tests of driving performance. Therefore, to truly understand the relationship between personality and driving performance, future research must consider a wider range of individual differences and employ more stringent tests and methodological designs to measure driving performance.

Behavioural ratings of self-regulatory mechanisms and driving behaviour after an acquired brain injury

“…The only baseline measures to show significant associations to accidents (unreported to police/insurance companies) were sensation seeking personality and pre-morbid driving violations. From the general population, these are known risk factors of accident involvement [61,65]. However, due to the Poisson distribution of the accident parameters, low sample size and short follow-up time, these numbers must be interpreted within those limitations.…”

“…Given that the majority of participants who completed the on-road test drove acceptably (81.5%), it is a fair assumption that, in this study, the DBQ in some cases provided additional information of the shared variance between self-regulation and real-life driving behaviours not necessary shown during the on-road driving test. Studies have shown that impulsive personality traits [59] and dysexecutive symptoms [50] are related to aberrant driving behaviours, which in turn are correlated with involvement in accidents [61,64]. In addition, self-regulation and awareness of cognitive capacity are regarded as pre-requisites for tactical and strategic coping strategies during driving [25].…”

“…Lower performance on neuropsychological tests (indicating cognitive deficits) was expected to predict a decrease of driving mileage and increased use of compensatory strategies. Further, it was expected that impulsive personality traits and pre-morbid aberrant driving behaviours would significantly relate to post-injury accident rates, as reported in studies from a healthy population [61,65] and studies of brain injured samples [29]. Given that accidents are rare events, no specific changes compared to pre-injury were expected.…”

“…An authorised Norwegian translation of the Manchester Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) was administered [84]. The DBQ is widely used and has been validated as a predictor of road traffic accidents and as a driving outcome measure itself [61,85]. The 32 items measure the following four sub-scales: driving violations, inattention, inexperience and mistakes.…”

“…These personality changes are often related to deficits in executive self-regulation [52][53][54][55]. Behavioural rating measures of personality traits are documented predictors of aberrant driving behaviour in healthy populations [56][57][58][59][60][61][62][63] and road traffic accidents may be influenced by personality traits and aberrant driving behaviour [61,64,65]. The highest levels in the driver behaviour hierarchy are influenced by personality factors such as selfcontrol, attitudes, gender, age, social background and other pre-conditions [66].…”