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There is a stereotype that women are poorer divers with a worse sense of directions. However, a new research finds that women are actually good drivers with better concentration than men.
The research finds that young extroverted, sensitive regular men drivers are more likely to be distracted during driving while older women can control themselves better to help pay attention to the road conditions.
The study, conducted by Frontiers in Psychology, tries to find out how people's character, including age, gender, and personality etc, affect drivers' distraction. Also, it looks at the types and frequency of distractions the divers experienced.
The first sample group was 1100 high school students, in which 208 were with licenses to drive, from Norway, and the second sample was 414 people taken from the general population.
Researcher Ole Johansson says that at least 12 percent of distracted driving lead car accidents in different areas and countries.
"While there are many campaigns to improve safety in traffic, little research has looked at distractions," he said.
It found that radio was the most common distractor as expected but age and gender are also the important factors.
Sociable people were easier to be distracted while older women could control their distracted behaviour,
"I found that young men were among the most likely to report distraction," Mr Johansson. "Others more prone to distraction include those who drive often, and those with neurotic and extroverted personalities."
"Tailored interventions to reduce driver distraction could focus on at-risk groups, such as young males with bad attitudes to distracted driving and a low belief that they can control their distraction."
Sociable people are easier to be distracted. Researchers also found the quick development of smartphones could lead to greater distraction among drivers.
"As the task of driving a vehicle is mostly taxing on the systems of visual attention, any factor that draws the gaze away from the road for a significant period of time could be classified as a distractor," said Mr Johansson. "Specifically, after two seconds of distraction, the risk of getting involved in an accident increases drastically."
Another research in 2015 also found that women performed better in cars since men were more likely to take risks, drive too close to the car in front, cut corners, go through lights on amber or talk and text at the wheel.
Many women really were more proficient in driving but they just lacked the confidence to say it.