For Real??? UK Road Rage Study Finds Women Drivers Are Angrier Than Men

 When you hear the term "road rage" you probably don't think it applies to you. After all, you're usually in a good mood when you're driving, save for that moment when you flip off the bozo who cuts you off in traffic. Or that time you screamed profanities out the window because your coffee spilled all over the car when the driver in front of you stopped short.

Okay, so maybe you do get a little ticked off from time to time when you're driving around town, but are your reactions all that different from any other driver? Well, according to a study by Hyundai Motor UK, if you're a female driver, you're a heck of a lot angrier than men who get behind the wheel.
A whole 12 percent angrier.

London-based behavioral psychologist Patrick Fagan recently did a study that involved 1,000 drivers who were subjected to something he calls "sense testing." To measure their emotional responses while driving, the men and women who took part in the study had to respond to smell, sound, light, touch and taste during different driving scenarios.

Road Rage Study Hyundai UK

 The study revealed two dominant emotions — happiness when the driver felt a sense of freedom and anger when they felt out of control. When Fagan broke down the results, it showed that women drivers who participated in the study reacted with anger more often than men.
The Hyundai UK study states that "in all test scenarios" women were more likely to react with anger (14 percent angrier than men) when "shouted at, honked at or had to deal with a backseat driver." They were 13 percent angrier than men when they "encountered motorists who fail to signal."

The way women reacted apparently dates way back to days of cave man and cave woman. Fagan explains that our early female ancestors had to develop "an acute sense of danger for anything that threatened them and their young if their cave was undefended while men were out hunting."

That "early warning system" instinct is still relevant today, Fagan explained. "Women drivers tend to be more sensitive to negative stimuli, so get angry and frustrated quicker," he said.
Although many women will beg to differ that they are more likely to have road rage than men, the study did reveal something that is positive for both sexes —54 percent of those who took part said that music and singing in the car make them really happy.