Rule obedience as a mediator between normlessness and risky driving in hazy conditions

Objective: With the increasing severity of haze and its detrimental effect on public health and visibility, hazy conditions has become a popular subject among the public and scholars. However, little is known about how haze affects risky driving behaviors and the role of normlessness. The present study examined this issue with a repeated within-subjects design. Methods: A total of 100 drivers completed two almost identical questionnaires in different weather conditions (clear and hazy) at an interval of at least two weeks. Respondents' personality traits (normlessness), risky driving behaviors (ordinary violations, aggressive violations, errors and lapses), and degrees of rule obedience were assessed. A mediation analysis with bootstrapping was conducted to identify the direct and indirect effects of normlessness related to hazy conditions and risky driving behaviors. Results: Respondents reported more aggressive violations, ordinary violations, errors, lapses, and total risky driving behaviors as well as a lower level of rule obedience in hazy conditions than in clear conditions. Normlessness significantly predicted ordinary violations, errors and total risky driving behaviors through rule obedience; that is, rule obedience fully mediated the association between normlessness and ordinary violations, errors and total risky driving behaviors. However, normlessness was not associated with any effect on aggressive violations and lapses. Compared with accident-free respondents, accident-involved respondents were less likely to comply with traffic rules. Conclusions: Consistent with previous studies, the results indicated the importance of normlessness in predicting risky driving behaviors and highlighted the importance of rule obedience in the association between normlessness and risky driving behaviors in hazy conditions. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.