The relationship between self-concept and self-reported aggressive driving behavior

Three questionnaire-based studies examined self-relevant personality traits as correlates of aggressive driving behavior and driving violations based on theoretical assumptions proposed by Baumeister, Smart, and Boden (1996). The first study revealed a positive relation between self-esteem and aggressive driving behavior. In Study 2, a positive relation between narcissism and driving violations and a negative relation between self-concept clarity and aggressive driving behavior was found. The results of Study 3 indicated a positive relation between narcissism, aggressive driving behavior, and driving violations and a negative relation between self-concept clarity and aggressive driving behavior and violations. Conducting regression analyses, aggressive driving behavior and violations could be predicted by the expected two-way interaction of narcissism and self-concept clarity. In all studies, participants' age, gender, the PS number of their car, and their annually amount of kilometers were not or only weakly related to aggressive driving behavior or violations.