Driven by emotions: The association between emotion regulation, forgivingness, and driving styles

Joining worldwide efforts to better understand factors associated with driving behaviors, the current study is aimed at examining the associations between emotional regulation and trait forgivingness, on one hand, and driving styles, on the other. A sample of 287 Israeli drivers completed scales assessing their driving styles, emotion regulation difficulties, and trait forgivingness. Results show that drivers adopting the three maladaptive driving styles (reckless and careless, angry and hostile, anxious) were characterized by a higher level of general difficulties in emotion regulation and by low trait forgivingness. In contrast, drivers adopting the patient and careful driving style had fewer difficulties in all aspects of emotion regulation, as well as higher trait forgivingness. The theoretical contribution of the study lays in showing that difficulties in emotion regulation and forgivingness are closely associated with maladaptive driving styles- an issue crucial for promoting the substantial efforts being invested in the attempts to reduce road crashes.